<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>vicarious by plain_and_simple_tailor (ectogeo)</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26209144">vicarious</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ectogeo/pseuds/plain_and_simple_tailor'>plain_and_simple_tailor (ectogeo)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek: Deep Space Nine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bad Matchmaking, Claustrophobia, Episode Related, Episode: s04e21 The Muse, F/M, Fake Marriage, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Genetic Engineering, Getting Together, Jadzia Dax - Freeform, Keiko O'Brien - Freeform, Lwaxana POV, Lwaxana solves her problems by creating problems for others, M/M, Miles O'Brien - Freeform, Morn - Freeform, Mutual Pining, Not Canon Compliant, characters with minor appearances:, there is some Garak and Bashir POV eventually</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:27:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,492</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26209144</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ectogeo/pseuds/plain_and_simple_tailor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lwaxana Troi's ability to detect emotions gets her into trouble with Garak when she mistakes his lunch with Julian for a romantic date. But when she realizes that's what they both want anyway, she decides it is her duty to Meddle.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Julian Bashir/Elim Garak, Odo &amp; Lwaxana Troi, Odo/Lwaxana Troi (one-sided)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>166</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>203</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I was thinking about how much I love <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/16584785/chapters/38866268">Especially the Lies</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaCygni/pseuds/AlphaCygni">AlphaCygni</a>, and I realized that I needed there to be more Garashir fics involving Lwaxana!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lwaxana was disappointed to find Garak’s Clothiers closed. She desperately needed a wedding dress, and none of her previous ones would fit, as she had never gotten married while so very pregnant, except for once during a traditional Betazed ceremony where she hadn’t worn anything at all. Casting her eyes around the Promenade, she spotted Garak in the Replimat, sitting alone. Perfect!</p>
<p>She swept over to him.</p>
<p>“Hello, Garak!”</p>
<p>“Ah, my dear ambassador! I hope you are well.” He smiled like a Betazed crocodile. She had clearly shaken him from deep within his thoughts, but he didn’t let it show, and she detected no more than a flash of annoyance.</p>
<p>“Oh, as well as one can be. I was wondering when your shop would be open again?”</p>
<p>“Just as soon as I’m done eating.”</p>
<p>She was puzzled. He clearly hadn’t even started eating, and he seemed in no rush to start now. His zabu stew and Idanian spice pudding were untouched in front of him, his silverware still laid out perfectly on the napkin beside his meal. She started to worry she had done something to offend him, and he was trying to avoid her. But at the moment she didn’t care about his feelings, he was supposed to be a professional! She decided to impress upon him the urgency of the situation.</p>
<p>“Garak, I don’t mean to rush you through your lunch, but I have an urgent commission for you to take. I’ll pay whatever you need. You see, I am getting married tomorrow, and I haven’t a single appropriate thing to wear.” Definitely more than a flash of annoyance, but this time it wasn’t all directed at her. Interesting.</p>
<p>Resigned. “All right, I—”</p>
<p>Then something caught his gaze and his emotions changed. The annoyance stayed but was suddenly overwhelmed by something softer. She followed his eyes, and caught a glimpse of Dr. Bashir waving to him and mouthing “sorry!” as he got in line for the replicators. Garak waved back and Dr. Bashir smiled, and for a moment she felt everything Garak felt for him. It was exhilarating.</p>
<p>“Oh, Garak! I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you were on a date! I didn’t mean to interrupt.”</p>
<p>“Oh, no, it’s not a date.” A sharp stab of pain, followed by an ache, an absence. “But I would appreciate it if you and I could continue our discussion later.”</p>
<p>“Of course!” But she lingered for a moment. She knew that feeling too, all too well.</p>
<p>Dr. Bashir arrived at the table and set down his own bowl of steaming hot zabu stew. He felt apologetic, happy, and... the same soft feeling Garak had for him when he’d smiled. “Garak! Sorry I’m late, I— Oh! Hello, Ambassador Troi!”</p>
<p>“Hello, Dr. Bashir!”</p>
<p>“Oh, you can just call me Julian.” A twinge of jealousy, or something like it, from Garak. Did he not think that he had permission to call Dr. Bashir by his first name? She supposed Garak couldn’t tell how desperately Dr. Bashir wanted Garak to call him “Julian” too. Sometimes she marveled at how emotion-blind other species could be.</p>
<p>“Well then as we’re dispensing with formalities, feel free to call me Lwaxana! Thank you, Julian, for letting me borrow Garak for a minute!” She winked, and Dr. Bashir blushed. She could sense that he liked the idea of Garak being somehow his. “I just needed to ask him to make me a wedding dress, and now that’s done so I’ll leave you two alone!”</p>
<p>She walked away slowly. She had forgotten how exhausting it could be to be pregnant. She stopped for a moment to rest and supported herself on the back of an empty chair a few tables away.</p>
<p>Her senses were still sharply tuned in to the emotions coming from the table behind her and she was just barely within earshot. She felt a sudden wave of tender concern from Dr. Bashir.</p>
<p>“Oh no, Garak, your zabu stew has gotten cold! Here, please have mine, it’s still hot, and it’s all my fault yours is ruined—”</p>
<p>“That’s not necessary, doctor—”</p>
<p>“You are always cold, you need the warmth far more than I do, so let’s swap, I insist—” Dr. Bashir switched their bowls and Garak let him, despite his protests. From both of them, she felt a renewed wave of trust, affection, caring. Love.</p>
<p>She had to do something about this. She turned around and walked back over to them.</p>
<p>“Sorry to interrupt again, but, before I forget, you two are both invited to my wedding!” she smiled warmly.</p>
<p>“Oh! Thank you!” and “I’d love to attend,” they said politely.</p>
<p>“Great! Now I just need to know if either of you plan on bringing another guest along as a plus one. Are either of you dating anyone?” Garak’s face stayed neutral but she sensed his resentment and suspicion. He knew exactly what she was doing and did not appreciate it, but she didn’t care. The only way to stop her from interfering would be for them to confess their feelings to each other before she could engineer her own elaborate scheme to make that happen. <em>It’s up to you to save yourself some embarrassment, Garak! </em>“You see, Quark wants an exact count so that he knows how much to charge us for his catering.”</p>
<p>“No, um, I’m, uh, single, at the moment.” Dr. Bashir’s face burned, and he looked everywhere but at Garak as he said it. Embarrassed, hopeful, desperate, longing.</p>
<p>“As am I.” That deep ache again, and anger towards her for reminding him.</p>
<p>Well, she just had to be sure, and now she was. These two needed her help to realize how much they loved each other, and she would be only too happy to take on that responsibility. Helping these two get together would provide a nice distraction from her own troubled romances.</p>
<p>“All right, I will update the guest list! And, Garak, I’ll find you in your shop later to discuss my wedding dress.”</p>
<p>She swept away, grinning, feeling Garak glaring daggers at her, but they slid right off. She felt warmly enveloped in the vicarious feeling of their love for each other.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>As a way to try to get over my paralyzing perfectionism, I'm trying out a new thing by writing this chapter-by-chapter with minimal editing or planning ahead (unlike my first Garashir multichapter fic where I wrote a pretty solid draft of whole thing and then spent actual months obsessing over it and rewriting it and editing it before even starting to post it lol). But as a result, I don't really know where this story is headed, so the rating and tags may change, and I don't have an update schedule </p><p>I'll prob post the next few chapters pretty quickly, since I've drafted a few more scenes after this one, but like... I'm def open to hearing ideas about what schemes Lwaxana might actually try to pull in order to get these two to talk about/admit their feelings! I'm particularly craving ideas for tropey fluffy ridiculous shenanigans (bonus points if it involves Odo reluctantly helping by using his shapeshifting powers somehow), or cute tender moments between them she might be able to observe. Even if no one has any suggestions, I'm sure I'll come up with something!! :)</p><p>Julian and Leeta aren't dating at this point because I said so (I'll try to remember to explain that away maybe). Also I didn't bother rewatching The Muse, because it's not a fave episode of mine, so if there's other minor discrepancies with it, then oh well lol </p><p>Next chapter: Odo is the physical embodiment of an exasperated sigh</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Odo is the physical embodiment of an exasperated sigh</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oh man, I have another extremely good Lwaxana-driven Garashir fic to recommend to y'all: <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26214052">hazy head of mine</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiranxrys/pseuds/kiranxrys">kiranxrys</a>, which was posted just before I started posting this fic lol, I'm glad Lwaxana is on everyone's minds right now!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lwaxana found Odo in the security office.</p><p>“Odo! We need to get Quark to cater the wedding.”</p><p>He harrumphed. “Do we really even need catering for our fake wedding?”</p><p>“Maybe just get him to host an afterparty at his bar? I mentioned to Garak and Dr. Bashir that Quark was involved in the catering, so now I want to make it true.”</p><p>“Well, why did you do that?” he said, exasperated.</p><p>“Mmm, because I needed to invite them to the wedding and ask if either of them planned to bring a date, in order to find out if they are in love with each other or not.”</p><p>“Dr. Bashir, in love with Garak? Ha! Have you seen the types of people who the doctor usually dates? Only in Garak’s dreams...” he snorted.</p><p>“Oh, dating each other is very much in <em>both</em> of their dreams.” Lwaxana said saucily.</p><p>“I... see...” he said, clearly taken aback by this new information. “But can’t you just read minds? Why did you need to come up with such an inconvenient lie in order to figure that out?”</p><p>“I can sense emotions and even some basic thoughts, but only what people are feeling or thinking at the moment. So I obviously needed to bring those feelings up to the surface! Now will you be a dear and talk to Quark?”</p><p>“Yes, fine,” he grumbled. “I was going to drop by his bar later this afternoon anyway to make sure he isn’t currently committing any crimes. But I’m annoyed with you, Lwaxana. Stop interfering in other people’s love lives. The station has barely recovered from the last time you projected your amorous feelings onto everyone around you.”</p><p>“Oh, it will be fine, Odo. This time I don’t have Zanthi fever, so I won’t be giving anyone feelings they don’t already have, I promise. I’ll just be... making sure they acknowledge those feelings. To each other. Preferably when they are in my presence so that I get to experience some of their joy too.”</p><p>“I don’t condone this.”</p><p>“Oh, let me have my fun! I don’t have much else happy going on right now. My baby is in danger of being taken from me by my cruel husband, and the man I truly love is marrying me out of pity.”</p><p>Odo’s facial features all slipped a little out of place for a moment, but he quickly pulled them back into their usual positions and proportions. “Well, I suppose you can have your fun then, but don’t expect me to get involved in your schemes.”</p><p>“All right.” She smiled, and didn’t point out that he had already gotten involved by agreeing to talk Quark into validating her story.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I think about that <a href="https://awesomelyanon.tumblr.com/post/184319997265/do-you-ever-think-during-particularly-boring-days">soup instinct</a> post all the time. Made me think about how maybe if Odo was hit suddenly with a big sad emotion, he would forget about maintaining his form for a second and his face would get soupy.</p><p>Next chapter: Garak is dramatic af</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Garak is dramatic af</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay, so... I've got a total of six chapters written at this point, which means I'll keep doing daily updates for a bit!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She waited around the security office, chatting with Odo and listening to him read aloud from some of his favorite criminal activity reports, until she saw Garak heading back to his shop.</p><p>She bustled over quickly, barely catching the door with her foot as Garak tried to close it behind him. The only emotion she sensed in him now was raw fury. The half of his face that she could see through the doorway was glaring at her.</p><p>“Ambassador. What a treat,” he said, superficially sweet but dripping with venom. He didn’t open the door any further, but nor did he close it and crush her foot.</p><p>“I’m here for a dress fitting.”</p><p>“I recommend seeking out a tailor on Bajor. I can provide you with a list of some highly qualified tailors who can be found in the Tozhat Province.”</p><p>“I’m afraid that won’t be possible. My wedding is tomorrow!”</p><p>“That’s hardly my problem.”</p><p>“Garak, I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable earlier.”</p><p>“You made me ‘uncomfortable’? Oh, you mean how you deliberately rubbed it in my face that the man I love doesn’t return my feelings?”</p><p>“You misunderstood—”</p><p>“Ah, I see so you <em>weren’t</em> poking around at the gaping wound that is my heart with a poisoned serrated dagger?” She gasped in psychic pain as she suddenly felt exactly what he was feeling, exactly as he had described it. Had he really been feeling like this, and she hadn’t been able to detect any more from him than anger? She was surprised he had been able to hide emotions of this magnitude from her. She was even more surprised that he had such a measure of control over what emotions and thoughts she could read that he could choose when to let her into his mind just to make a point.</p><p>She was unnerved. She now knew exactly how much pain she had caused him, and how much pain he was willing and able to cause her. It was an attempt at intimidation, and it was certainly working.</p><p>“I suppose that I was... poking. But only to help you, not to hurt you! And he does return your feelings, you know.”<br/>
<br/>
“I’m not that gullible, Ambassador. You want something from me, and you know exactly what I want to hear, so do forgive me for not taking your word for it. Now, please, just leave me alone before I do something you’ll regret.”</p><p>She didn’t need to be a telepath in order to know that he meant it. She quickly removed her foot from the door, and no sooner had the tip of her shoe cleared the doorframe, then Garak had slammed it shut, locking it and turning off the store lights to indicate it was closed. She could still feel the ache of the emotional knife Garak had plunged into her heart, and wondered if maybe she should have been more careful around him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Garak reeeeeeally doesn't like the vulnerability of being known</p><p>I don't think Garak is immune to having his thoughts/emotions read by Lwaxana, but I do think he could have a tiny bit of control if he concentrates hard enough on Not Thinking About That Right Now. Like... there had to be a whole lecture series on how to deal with empaths/telepaths in Obsidian Order school, and the curriculum was probably like, lesson 1: just kill them, it's the safest way, lesson 2: avoid them, lesson 3: get a catchy song that you hate stuck in your head they will stop listening to your thoughts immediately, lesson 4: here is how to weaponize your own pain against them to deal them psychic damage, lessons 5-20: How To Repress Your Feelings (and why you should be doing this at all times anyway). Garak got an A+</p><p>Shoutout to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphose">sapphose</a> for encouraging me to just start posting the beginning of this fic even though I had no plan for the rest of it, and thanks to them for the suggestion of Garak doing spy shit as a disproportionate reaction to Lwaxana's meddling (I had already written this scene, but now there will be more of Garak doing spy shit in ch. 5)</p><p>Next chapter: Lwaxana chats with Julian</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Lwaxana chats with Julian</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After her second failed attempt to visit Garak’s shop, Lwaxana wandered the Promenade again, unsure how to proceed. As she passed by Quark’s she felt the cyclical waves of anticipation, joy, and loss emanating from the dabo table. She also saw Odo talking to Quark and wondered if he was feeling any surprise at learning Odo was getting married. Even though she could not read Ferengi emotions, she was sure Quark would be overjoyed with greed to learn he’d been selected as their caterer.</p><p>Once Odo was done talking with Quark, she would have to ask Odo to have a word with Garak about helping her with the wedding dress. She didn’t even need a whole new dress!! She really just needed a few traditional Tavnian details added to one of the dresses she already had, to legitimize her marriage a little bit more in the eyes of the Tavnian government.</p><p>She spotted the Infirmary. Maybe she should drop by and ask Dr. Bashir to check up on her baby, and mention <em>oh by the way, Garak likes you and doesn’t realize you like him back, you should perhaps talk to him...</em></p><p>*</p><p>“Good afternoon, is Dr. Bashir in?” she asked one of the nurses.</p><p>“Hello, Ambass— Lwaxana! I just got back from lunch with Garak a few minutes ago,” Julian grinned, bounding across the room at the sound of his name. He seemed electrified. The nurse on the other hand was exhausted, exasperated, and completely overloaded with information she didn’t care about and wanted to immediately forget, such as the titles of the fifteen enigma tales that were written by Preloc under a pseudonym, at least according to the controversial speculation of some Cardassian scholars. The nurse silently apologized to Lwaxana, and gave her a look readable even to non-Betazoids that clearly said, <em>He <strong>always</strong> gets this way after lunch with Garak, </em>and then went into the other room, grateful for the opportunity to make herself scarce.</p><p>“Hello, Julian! I was a bit worried about my baby all of a sudden, and I wondered if you could give me a quick scan to make sure everything’s okay, just for my peace of mind?” She was still reeling a little bit from Garak letting her feel the full extent of his own lovesick heartache, but she wasn’t actually all that worried about her baby’s physical health.</p><p>“Of course!”</p><p>“Thanks!”</p><p>He ran the tricorder over her belly, and then studied its output carefully. “Well, everything looks normal for a Betazoid baby... Might I ask who the other parent is? Is it whoever you’re marrying tomorrow?”</p><p>“Not quite... I’m marrying Odo tomorrow.” She projected joy, but felt only the painful ache of unrequited love. Whenever she thought about her love for Odo, it only strengthened her resolve to get Garak and Julian to acknowledge their feelings for each other, as such a precious chance at finding love ought not to be wasted or taken lightly.</p><p>“Oh!! I didn’t even realize you two were together... Wow, you must think I am so unobservant.” Surprised, confused, apologetic, wanting to be supportive.</p><p>She just smiled wider, trying to keep the sadness from her eyes. “It’s all right... Anyway, the other parent of my child is a Tavnian man.”</p><p>“All right, I’ll cross-reference the database for any information we have on Betazoid-Tavnian children, but based on the tricorder readings, I think you and your baby are in perfect health!”</p><p>“Thank you, doctor!” As she said it, she heard him think fondly about how Garak calls him <em>my dear doctor,</em> and then his thoughts spiraled out into how he longed to also hear Garak call him <em>my dear</em>, or <em>Julian</em>, or <em>my dear Julian</em>, or <em>my love</em>... Does he really think this every time someone either calls him by his title or refers to his occupation? Or maybe only right after lunches with Garak? Either way, it was adorable.</p><p>Julian came back into focus, and asked, “So, how are your wedding preparations going? I thought you were going to Garak’s to work on your dress? But you can’t possibly have gotten through a fitting with him so quickly, I had just barely gotten back to the Infirmary when you arrived. And he’s so meticulous and methodical, it always takes forever for him to measure you, and if you fidget even a little he insists on starting over...”</p><p>She could tell that he really thought this was a rule Garak had for all his customers, not just the particularly fidgety doctor he had a crush on. She could also sense Julian thinking about how he sometimes would fidget intentionally just to extend the appointment and keep Garak’s attention on him for longer. It was ever so endearing.</p><p>“Well, Garak’s shop is closed because he is in a rather foul mood right now. I suppose I’ll just have to make do with one of the dresses I already have.”</p><p>Worried. “Oh no, that sounds bad, do you know what happened? He seemed fine at lunch, although maybe he was a little annoyed with me for running late...”</p><p>“Oh, don’t worry, he’s fine. He’s quite annoyed with <em>me</em> actually, and rightly so.”</p><p>“What? Why?? Maybe I should go talk to him. Maybe I can smooth things over and get him to reopen his shop.”</p><p>“Well, you definitely should talk to him—but not about me, don’t worry about that, he has every reason to be annoyed with me. I think you should tell him your secret. You might be surprised by his response... I think he might have a similar secret.”</p><p>“My... secret?” His mind was racing, panicked, a frantic flurry. <em>How does she know about my secret? Have I been thinking about it that much? How long has she known?</em> <em>Who has she told? </em></p><p><em>And Garak... could I really tell him? Could he really understand? </em>The relief that he felt at that thought was palpable, even amidst his ongoing panic.</p><p>Oh, poor sweet Julian... So worked up about being discovered... She wanted to tell him not to worry so much, because someone on the surface of Bajor looking up at the distant twinkle of light that is DS9 would be able to see his “secret” crush plainly, but she knew such a thing would come across as cruel instead of comforting.</p><p>Instead she said, “I truly think he would understand.”</p><p>He looked at her, blinking away the tears that were forming in his eyes, feeling again a surge of relief that Garak might accept him, flaws and all.</p><p>“Let’s... let’s go see if we can talk him into opening his shop back up for you,” Julian said, after a moment.</p><p>Lwaxana smiled at him. She was grateful for his help in dealing with Garak and grateful for the pure emotional catharsis she was getting to witness.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Oh no Lwaxana wat r u doing......</p><p>Next chapter: Just a pleasant stroll along the Promenade</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Just a pleasant stroll along the Promenade</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Julian and Lwaxana left the Infirmary to head for Garak’s shop.</p><p>As they rounded a corner, they saw Odo walking with Garak, Odo a step behind him with his hand on Garak’s shoulder. Lwaxana felt Julian think wistfully about wanting to touch Garak’s shoulder like that. Then his focus zoomed out, and he took in the sight in front of him again, and he realized that Garak’s hands were restrained behind his back and Odo was marching him to the security office.</p><p>“Garak!” Julian said, confused, concerned. “What’s going on?”</p><p>Garak treated Julian to a mysterious roguish smile, but behind it was shame about being caught, embarrassment about being seen like this.</p><p>“My dear doctor, I’m just taking an afternoon stroll with my friend Odo.” Julian rolled his eyes, but he was amused, and glad that Garak seemed to be in a joking mood, and his heart had fluttered at Garak’s term of endearment.</p><p>“Our <em>friend</em> here was trying to access classified files,” said Odo, clearly satisfied with himself for catching a criminal in the act. “It’s a good thing I set up extra activity alerts for any files about you, Lwaxana, because that’s what he was after, apparently.”</p><p>“Oh, is that all? Just let him go, Odo,” she said with all the nonchalance in the galaxy.</p><p>“What??” Odo spluttered. “But he was clearly breaking the law, and I caught him!”</p><p>“Well you won’t see me pressing charges. Remember that you were only watching my files so closely to help protect me from my ex-husband, not from my tailor.” She looked Odo in the eyes. “I am positive that Garak wasn’t planning to hurt me,” Lwaxana lied, smiling.</p><p>Garak stared at her, puzzled. He didn’t understand why she was helping him when he had only ill intentions toward her after feeling so humiliated by her at lunch, not to mention her unreasonable demands for him to make her a dress last-minute. And he <em>knew </em>she could sense that he had indeed meant to harm her, or at least make her leave the station—he was not even trying to hide it from her, he wanted her to know, to be afraid of him. So why was she lying?</p><p>Then Garak looked at Julian’s concerned, searching expression and something clicked as Garak figured out what Lwaxana already knew. He would not retaliate against her now, because he could not bear to disappoint his dear doctor. He felt defeated, his hands feeling somehow more tightly bound now than they were when Odo had arrested him a few minutes ago. But he also felt a twinge of doubt about his earlier assessment of her. He wondered if maybe she had wanted to help him not hurt him after all.</p><p>“I was just trying to do a little research on what the dear ambassador’s favorite colors are so that I could incorporate them into the palette of her wedding dress as a way to surprise her,” Garak said, hoping Julian would believe him, hoping he had at least believed Lwaxana’s lie. “Many of my customers appreciate the personal touches like that, but I don’t know Lwaxana as well as I know my regular customers so I had to get a little <em>creative</em>...”</p><p>Odo was livid. “Garak! You can’t just hack into your customers’ personal logs and medical records or any of their private information to find out their clothing preferences!!! And Lwaxana, I don’t care that you don’t mind, I can’t just let him go unpunished...”</p><p>“No harm was done. It seems to me that the only person who would gain anything from punishing him is you, Odo. That hardly seems like justice.”</p><p>Odo bristled. “Fine. I’ll be watching you, Garak.” He unlocked the cuffs, crossed his arms, and turned his head away, pouting.</p><p>Garak rubbed at his wrists. Julian hoped his wrists were okay, and then wondered if he could get away with inspecting them under medical pretenses...</p><p>“How are your wrists, Garak? Maybe the doctor should take a look at them,” Lwaxana said. Julian glanced at her. Kind of grateful but a little suspicious of her too. Well, he should learn not to think so loudly if he doesn’t want his thoughts to be overheard!!</p><p>“They’re just a bit stiff—” Garak protested.</p><p>“Ohhh, let me check, it’ll just take a second...” Julian said, stepping toward him.</p><p>Garak reluctantly (but not <em>that</em> reluctantly) offered his wrists to the doctor, who took them delicately into his hands. He gently pushed Garak’s sleeves back a few centimeters, touched his gray scales lightly, turned his wrists over to look for bruises or scrapes. The cuffs had only been on him for a few minutes, and were designed not to injure the wearer, so it was a thin pretense, but Garak and Julian didn’t seem to care. Their hearts were racing, and they had eyes only for each other. She could feel how their closeness and the tender intimacy of the moment made them both feel like they were in their own little world, both forgetting that they were in the middle of a crowded Promenade.</p><p>She smiled at Odo, and slid her hand through his crossed arms to link their elbows. He was still looking away and pouting about not getting to arrest Garak, so she caught his attention and jerked her head slightly to indicate he should take a look at Garak and Julian. He begrudgingly looked over at the two lovestruck men and then nodded and let out a soft “huh” of acknowledgment.</p><p>She imagined Odo was thinking something like,<em> Well, you were absolutely right, wise and beautiful Lwaxana. </em>She allowed herself such harmless little fantasies sometimes.</p><p>Then the doctor ran out of ways to plausibly examine his patient’s wrists, and the moment was over. Julian and Garak were both awash in a warm glow. Desperate for more, too scared to ask for it. Lwaxana basked in their longing.</p><p>Julian finally let go of Garak, and said, “Your wrists are perfect.” A flush of embarrassment. No! He’d meant to say<em> in perfectly good health</em>. He kept thinking <em>your wrists are in perfectly good health</em> over and over again, trying futilely to overwrite the memory to be something he saw as less embarrassing.</p><p>Garak’s eyes were wide, and his mind became preoccupied with reminding himself how to breathe.</p><p>“Well, um, I should get back to the Infirmary...” Julian said awkwardly, nervous that he had accidentally been too forward.</p><p>“Yes, I should go... reopen my shop... get back to work...” Garak said, nervous that Julian’s sudden nervousness meant he hadn’t enjoyed that moment as much as Garak had.</p><p><em>These two are hopeless!</em> Lwaxana thought. <em>I just told both of them that they like each other and have nothing to worry about, so why are they still so unsure?</em></p><p>“Yes, I’m glad to hear you’re trying to work on Lwaxana’s dress. I heard you were in a bad mood so I was actually coming over to find you to try to see what was wrong.”</p><p>“Oh, nothing to worry about, I was just a little bit stressed out by such a last-minute request.”</p><p>“Garak,” Lwaxana butted in, “instead of making a whole new dress... If I have one of my dresses that already fits me brought down to your shop, would you be willing to alter just a few small details for me?”</p><p>“Of course, Ambassador,” he said, a bit startled to notice that she was still there. “That sounds like a fair compromise.”</p><p>“Homn will bring one down right away. By the way, my favorite colors are purple and silver and blue and green and yellow—”</p><p>Julian’s combadge beeped. Based on the particular pattern of beeps, he knew that the nurse was paging him from the Infirmary, wanting to know where he had gone. “Oops, I really have to go...” He rushed off, back to the Infirmary, wishing he’d had the chance to tell Garak he wanted to talk to him about something important later.</p><p>After discussing a few more tailoring details with Garak, Lwaxana and Odo made their way back to the security office arm in arm.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Odo is sooooo sad that he didn't get to send any of his frenemies to space jail today lmao</p><p>Next up: Lwaxana and Odo try to write the next chapter of their Garashir fanfic, and experience consequences caused by lack of planning lol</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Lwaxana and Odo try to write the next chapter of their Garashir fanfic, and experience Consequences caused by lack of planning lol</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Idk when next update will be! Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a week... I make no promises lol</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“He <em>threatened</em> you?” Odo growled angrily. “All because he was embarrassed that you knew he had a crush on Dr. Bashir? Lwaxana, I can’t BELIEVE you made me let him go! Garak is clearly a security risk!”</p><p>“My dear, I agree that he’s dangerous, but you know as well I do that putting him in a holding cell for awhile is not going to fix the underlying problem. So it will just happen again, maybe to someone who isn’t fortunate enough to be fake-betrothed to the head of security.”</p><p>“And what,” he said, exhausted, “is the ‘underlying problem,’ by your estimation?”</p><p>“I already told you. He needs to realize that Dr. Bashir is into him. They<em> both</em> need to stop thinking of each other as unattainable so that they will just get together already. If Garak knew Dr. Bashir loved him, he would not have felt humiliated by me and would not worry about me exposing his secrets, so he would have no reason to threaten me—or whoever the next poor soul is who recognizes his obvious attraction to the doctor.”</p><p>Odo scrunched up his face and rubbed his forehead like he had a massive headache. Lwaxana wasn't even sure it was possible for Odo to get headaches, so she wondered where he had picked up this mannerism. Over the time she’d known him, she had gathered that he was best at conveying expressions and gestures that were related to frustration, and wondered if he practiced those in particular, or if it was just that he was frustrated most of the time and therefore had more natural opportunities to use them. She suspected it was some combination of the two. She didn’t like the idea that Odo was grouchy all the time, but it absolutely tickled her to picture him scowling or grimacing or facepalming into the mirror for hours to get the shape of his face perfect for expressing his annoyance.</p><p>“That is... not how I usually do things. But... I’m starting to see your point that getting these two to talk about their feelings might be the simplest way to prevent future crimes.”</p><p>He sighed, then added, “So, what’s the plan?”</p><p>“The plan?”</p><p>“Yes, the plan. For getting Garak and Dr. Bashir to start dating, so that Garak no longer lashes out at people for daring to notice his interest in the doctor. Surely you have some ideas?”</p><p>“You’re really going to help me? Oh, Odo, thank you!” She hugged him, and he stiffened, suddenly seeming to be made out of rock instead of goo. She let him go, and his shoulders eased back down. For a moment she had forgotten that he would never love her the way she loved him...</p><p>She cleared her throat, and then said, “Hmm, well, you saw the way they looked when they touched each other.” Odo nodded. “I think we should think of ways to get them into physical contact with each other, because they clearly can’t help themselves but be affectionate.”</p><p>She thought for a moment, then stood up and clasped her hands together as the perfect idea struck her.</p><p>“Odo! You can do surfaces! Maybe you can... become a patch of floor near where they are walking together, and then when they when they walk over you, you make one of them stumble into the other’s arms...” She imitated falling into Odo’s arms and swooning.</p><p>“Lwaxana,” he said, pushing her delicately away from him, and extending his arms beyond usual humanoid dimensions to guide her gently back around to the chair on the other side of his desk, “that’s absolutely ridiculous, and it probably wouldn’t even work, and I would not enjoy being stepped on by a lot of people before those two happened to walk over me. Besides I don’t want to accidentally hurt anyone. Not even criminals—not even Cardassian spies who should be in holding cells but are <em>only</em> roaming free because they have a very convincing lawyer.” He looked at her pointedly. She laughed.</p><p>“Okay, fine! But you’re no fun!” she teased.</p><p>“Why not just talk to both of them separately, and tell them how the other feels? Wouldn’t that be the most straightforward, most injury-free course of action?”</p><p>“Oh, I absolutely did try that...” Lwaxana said. “Garak didn’t believe me when I told him Dr. Bashir was interested in him. He is even more cynical and mistrusting than you are, my dear. He thought I was just trying to manipulate him so that he would agree to take my last-minute wedding dress commission.”</p><p>“A logical deduction, to be fair.”</p><p>She chose to ignore his rebuke. “When I told Dr. Bashir that it was safe to tell Garak about his feelings for him, he was quite worried at first, but then really warmed up to the idea of telling Garak. When we left the Infirmary he really seemed like he was going to do it, but then he never did...”</p><p>“That’s not that surprising. Maybe he just didn’t want to declare his feelings in public.”</p><p>“How strange. But I guess non-telepaths are much more private about their emotions. He did want to ask Garak to talk about something important later, but he didn’t get the chance to schedule anything.”</p><p>“Well, there you have it. This will all resolve itself in a few days once they get a chance to talk to each other in private.”</p><p>“Mmmm,” she hummed. “But why wait?” The doorway to the holding cells caught her eye. “What if we locked them in a room together and said we wouldn’t let them out until they talked about their feelings for each other?”</p><p>“Hmm... I do have control over the holding cells,” he said, momentarily tempted. “But no, even if it might be for a good cause, I doubt that Captain Sisko or Major Kira would approve of us kidnapping and detaining innocent citizens indefinitely.” Then he snorted and added, “For a strange definition of ‘innocent,’ where <em>Garak</em> is concerned.”</p><p>“What if... we recreate our first date?” Lwaxana suggested.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“When we got trapped in the turbolift.”</p><p>“That wasn’t a date, Lwaxana, that was a <em>crisis!</em>” He uncrossed his arms dramatically, but then didn’t know what to do with them so he just crossed them again the other way around.</p><p>“Well, it felt romantic to me,” she pouted.</p><p>“It wasn’t. Besides how would we even coordinate them getting into the same turbolift?”</p><p>She was stumped by that. Then she looked through the doors of Odo’s security office and realized they wouldn’t need to coordinate anything. “Look, they’re getting into the turbolift together right now!!”</p><p>“What? I guess they’re probably going off somewhere to talk, like you said—”</p><p>“Odo, quickly! Please?? We need to make sure! This may be our only chance!”</p><p>“Ah, okay, okay, I guess it can’t hurt... Which one?” Odo asked, frantically pressing some buttons on his monitors.</p><p>“Promenade-5A.”</p><p>He pressed another button decisively, victoriously, then instantly looked like he regretted it.</p><p><em>“Bashir to Ops!”</em> they heard from Odo’s combadge.</p><p>
  <em>“Go ahead.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“The turbolift I’m in just stopped moving, is everything all right?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“We’re looking into it.”</em>
</p><p>“I’m pulling up the surveillance stream from the turbolift,” Odo said to Lwaxana.</p><p>Lwaxana came around behind Odo’s desk. He stood up, so she could take his seat, and she sat down.</p><p>She could see in the bird’s eye view that Julian had stumbled a little bit and was holding onto the railing, and she heard Garak asking him when they would get out. Julian reassured him they’d fix it soon, tried to comfort him by placing a hand on his arm, but Garak pushed Julian away. He began to claw at the door, trying to pry it open, trying to make a hole in the metal with his bare hands, even though it was clear that what was behind it was only the wall between levels. Julian tried to help him but after realizing the doors wouldn’t budge, he stepped back. Garak’s breathing was shallow and rapid as he threw himself shoulder first against the doors. He made to try again but his legs suddenly collapsed and he slid to the floor. Julian caught him before his head could hit the ground.</p><p>“Emergency medical transport, authorization Bashir-alpha-one, two to beam to the infirmary,” Lwaxana and Odo heard Julian say over the surveillance feed. And then with a flicker of light the two of them were gone.</p><p>Lwaxana and Odo stared in horror at the screen. Odo closed the video feed, and pressed a button that released his control of the turbolift. It hadn’t gone anything like that when they were stuck in the turbolift, why had it all gone so wrong for Garak and Julian?</p><p>“I guess we need to trap them somewhere they can’t beam out from,” Lwaxana finally said.</p><p>“Really, Lwaxana??? That’s your <em>only</em> takeaway from what just happened?”</p><p>“They didn’t have any time to talk about their feelings! They were barely stuck there for a minute before transporting away. So I guess we’re back to holding cells?”</p><p>“No holding cells! We just saw Garak collapse due to being trapped in an enclosed space, and you want to try it again??”</p><p>Then Odo paused as he realized the solution. “Holosuites. Somewhere pleasant that they don’t want to leave. They’ve been doing a lot of holosuite sessions together lately. There was a transporter malfunction a few months ago where the senior staff got stuck in holosuite memory, and Garak and Bashir stayed in the holoprogram together for hours just to save them. Since then they go together pretty often.”</p><p>“So, a holding cell that can be designed to look like a romantic date for its unsuspecting prisoners! Odo, I love it, you’re a genius.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Lwaxana has bad ideas ONLY!!! &gt;:) Odo is trying his best, but he doesn't know how to deal with her sheer chaos lol</p><p>Shoutout to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_last_dillards">the_last_dillards</a> for reminding me of the time that Odo and Lwaxana got stuck in a turbolift! In my first draft of this chapter they just went straight to the holosuites idea after talking about holding cells, but after I was reminded about the turbolift thing, it was just too beautiful of a disaster for me not to include it!!!</p><p>POLL: Should I have a chapter or two that isn't from Lwaxana's POV so that Garak and Bashir can get some actual privacy when they finally get a chance to talk about real shit? Or should I stick within the limitations of her POV, even if it means invoking ridiculous conceits or possibly OOC behaviors?</p><p>Next chapter: Quark is very pleased to see that Odo has turned to a life of crime</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Quark is very pleased to see that Odo has turned to a life of crime</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>You’ll notice that I’ve added some tags, and increased the rating to M. I wasn’t really sure where this fic was going at first lol, but I figured I should update the tags and rating now that I have the rest of it all pretty much planned out. The tags might still change a bit as I finalize the remaining chapters.</p><p>Some of the upcoming chapters are on the longer and meatier side. Based on my current drafts, I've really only posted about half of this fic so far, in terms of word count (and I haven't quite finished drafting the final chapter yet lol). So I'm not going to commit to an update schedule, but I'll try not to keep you waiting too long! ^_^</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Quark!” Odo barked.</p><p>Quark jumped. “What have I done this time, constable?”</p><p>“Nothing, for once. I have a business proposition for you.”</p><p>“Oh my! Two business propositions for me in one day? Careful, you’re going to give me the wrong idea...” Quark said suggestively.</p><p>“You’re right, it wouldn’t do to play favorites... I’m sure we can find another caterer,” Odo said bluntly. He turned to Lwaxana and simpered, “Lwaxana, dearest, would you go to the Klingon restaurant and—”</p><p>“Ahaha, that won’t be necessary!” Quark interrupted nervously. “Just a little joke, that’s all! Now what business was it that you were about to propose?”</p><p>“We need to get Garak and Dr. Bashir stuck in a holosuite together for a little while, preferably sometime today,” said Lwaxana.</p><p>“It obviously needs to seem like them getting stuck in there is an accident!” Odo chipped in.</p><p>“And we need to be able to monitor them discreetly,” Lwaxana finished.</p><p>“This is ridiculous. Me? Put monitoring devices in my holosuites? You’re trying to frame me! I won’t do it, I have a reputation to maintain, you know!”</p><p>“Quaaark...” Odo grumbled. “Do you really think I’d be asking you to do this if it wasn’t a matter of station security?”</p><p>Quark stared at Odo, and realized he was serious. “Well, I never thought I’d see the day, but the life of crime really suits you, Odo,” Quark said, impressed. Odo rolled his eyes and harrumphed softly.</p><p>“You win,” Quark said, shrugging. “I can hardly say no to something that would give me so much latinum and so much potential blackmail material.”</p><p>“How much latinum?” Odo sighed.</p><p>“Well, triple the usual rate for the holosuite time because all of the rooms are booked already, so I’ll need the extra to cover the refunds to my customers whose plans I’ll have to cancel. Then there will be the parts and labor costs involved in making the holosuite doors malfunction, preventing access to the main comm system from within the holosuite, and installing discreet monitoring devices. And of course, a small inconsequential fee for my silence...”</p><p>“Just send me the bill, Quark,” Lwaxana said.</p><p>“Gladly, Ambassador Troi!”</p><p>“When will everything be ready?”</p><p>“Let’s say... 1800 hours?”</p><p>“Excellent. Any ideas about how to get the two of them into a holosuite?”</p><p>Quark thought for a moment. “I have some Cardassian programs left over from the Terok Nor days... I can think of a few that might tempt Garak.”</p><p>*</p><p>Lwaxana, Odo, and Quark idled on the balcony overlooking the Promenade. Lwaxana was listening to the thoughts of the people entering and leaving the Infirmary, to try to discern how Garak was doing after his panic attack in the turbolift.</p><p>One of the nurses left as his shift ended, and Lwaxana skimmed his thoughts. Garak was awake now, and Julian had just been talking to him, telling him exactly what drugs he had given him and why, telling him he needed rest, telling him it would be okay...</p><p>“Well, he’s awake, so I think you should go down there and talk to him, Quark,” Lwaxana said.</p><p>“What, now?” Quark said, surprised. “He’s still in the Infirmary, and according to you, he just barely woke up! It’s completely unprofitable to advertise to someone who is stuck in a sick bed, and this is <em>Garak</em> we’re talking about. He has killed people over smaller annoyances, I’m sure.”</p><p>Lwaxana was not to be deterred. “Go on, offer him a few hours in your most relaxing holoprogram... If you go now, maybe Dr. Bashir will overhear you and agree with you that that’s what he needs right now...”</p><p>“Fine, FINE! But if he murders me because of this, then my blood is on both of your hands,” Quark said accusatorily and made to leave.</p><p>Odo rolled his eyes dramatically and sighed. “Quark... I’m sure that he’s not going to kill you, but I’ll go with you if that would make you feel safer.”</p><p>“Immensely.”</p><p>Odo removed his phaser and handed it to Lwaxana for safekeeping. Then Odo turned to face Quark, stepped very close to him, and slipped his fingers into a pocket on the breast of Quark’s coat. He poured himself into Quark’s pocket while shrinking himself into the shape of a folded handkerchief, until just a corner was peeking out of Quark’s pocket. Quark watched his transformation rapturously.</p><p>“Happy?” said the handkerchief grouchily.</p><p>“Well, I’ll be happy as long as Garak only tries to shoot me or stab me riiiiight here,” he said, patting the pocket with Odo in it gently.</p><p>Odo huffed. “Let’s get going.”</p><p>Quark finally headed down the narrow spiral staircase to the lower level of the Promenade.</p><p>By the time Quark reached the bottom of the stairs, Garak was already leaving the Infirmary, unsteadily but quickly. Lwaxana could tell that Garak felt angry at himself. He hated being seen as vulnerable and wanted to get away from the Infirmary so Julian wouldn’t have to see him being so weak. She also sensed his overwhelming guilt about something he’d just done, though she wasn’t sure exactly what it was.</p><p>Lwaxana saw Quark intercept Garak and start talking to him. Whatever program Quark offered must have been very tempting indeed, because Garak actually accepted the isolinear rod and holosuite reservation code for that evening rather quickly. She could feel that Garak was highly suspicious, but he wanted the conversation with Quark to be over quickly and accepting the offer was the fastest way to end it. Garak wanted to put more distance between himself and the Infirmary before Julian noticed he’d escaped, since his distraction wouldn’t last long...</p><p>It was after Garak’s usual business hours, but he went into his shop, closing the door behind him, unwilling to risk using the turbolift again so soon. Lwaxana lost track of his thoughts after that.</p><p>“I think he took the bait,” Quark said, looking surprised, as he and Odo finished their ascent back up to the balcony where Lwaxana was waiting.</p><p>The Bajoran-security-officer-beige handkerchief grunted, unconvinced. “We’ll see if he falls for it.” Odo sprouted head first from Quark’s pocket, and dusted multi-colored lint off of himself once he was standing on his own two feet again.</p><p>“I told you he wouldn’t try to kill you...” Then Odo grinned at Quark menacingly. “Not in <em>public</em> anyway. As I understand it, he would consider that quite unprofessional.”</p><p>“Well, thank you for that charming thought,” Quark said. “While we’re on the subject of what’s unprofessional, as chief of security you really shouldn’t take such delight in the thought of an innocent citizen, such as myself, being murdered.”</p><p>Just then Julian burst out of the Infirmary, taking Lwaxana’s attention away from Odo and Quark’s ongoing banter. Julian looked around, his mind completely preoccupied with searching for Garak. When he didn’t see Garak anywhere, he retreated back into the Infirmary, feeling so sad and betrayed that Lwaxana’s heart broke.</p><p>“Well, if Garak does show up tonight then I’m sure we’ll be able to find some way to get Dr. Bashir to take the bait as well,” she said.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Why is everyone so horny for the goo man’s love???? Some mysteries are not meant be solved</p><p>How did y’all like that totally plot-UNnecessary shapeshifting? This is the third Garashir fic I’ve written that has Odo in it, and yet it is the only one where I’ve managed to include any actual shapeshifting (and it didn't even really matter, it was just so I could obliquely reference The Ascent, the most Quodo episode ever lol).</p><p>Next chapter: Garak and Julian are successfully lured into a trap! (And you’ll finally get some Garak+Julian POV!!! Get excited!)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Garak and Julian are successfully lured into a trap! Oh no!!!! (Don't worry, though, it's fine)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is a very long chapter! With plenty of Garak + Bashir POV!! Enjoy!!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Garak made his way to the holosuite at the appointed time.</p><p>He locked the door behind him, even entering his own encryption code that could not be overridden by station security protocols, and loaded the Cardassian sauna program.</p><p>After taking all of his usual security precautions to ensure his privacy, he began editing the program’s parameters so the room he was in was even more cavernous. He knew it woulddn’t change the actual size of the holosuite room he was in, but both the perception of space and the reassurance that he was in complete control of his surroundings would help him relax.</p><p>He greatly appreciated the humid warmth on his exposed skin as the environmental conditions in the holosuite continued adjusting to the programmed settings. His clothes usually protected him from the station’s cold air but now they seemed to be holding the cold in. He started peeling off his layers of clothing, wanting the warmth to embrace his whole body, wanting it to seep deep into his bones, wanting to feel it on his skin and his scales as he stretched himself out on the smooth heated rocks.</p><p>*</p><p>Lwaxana had asked Jadzia to invite Julian to Quark’s around 1830 hours. Jadzia, a schemer through and through, had been instantly intrigued, though Lwaxana hadn’t elaborated beyond the fact that this particular scheme was to help make Julian happy. Jadzia had agreed, mentioning that Curzon still owed Lwaxana a favor anyway.</p><p>Now, Lwaxana could see Julian and Jadzia chatting over a kanar and a bloodwine at Quark’s bar. She wasn’t sure what they were talking about. Jadzia was barely listening to him, too busy eagerly speculating about what Lwaxana’s plan would be. Julian seemed to be thinking about everything that had happened that day, and Lwaxana could barely process the jumble of all of his feelings.</p><p>At the surface, was sharp hurt from Garak leaving the Infirmary, worry about Garak’s health, hope that he was doing all right. Slightly deeper, Julian was running through the memories of all the times that day when he’d gotten to touch Garak... in the Replimat as they’d exchanged books to discuss the next week, on the Promenade as he turned them over to inspect his wrists after the cuffs had been removed, in the turbolift after he broke his fall, and after they’d beamed into the Infirmary, still holding Garak’s unconscious body as he called out frantic orders to his nurses. Deeper still was a desperate longing for Garak to know him, and an equally strong resolve to be patient until Garak was feeling better...</p><p>“Julian! Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I’m worried about Garak... I think he might need more of your medical attention, and you know how unwilling he is to ask for help.”</p><p>“Yes, I do know that...” Julian sighed.</p><p>Julian set down his drink and mouthed an apology to Jadzia, who raised her eyebrows and shrugged supportively. She took her bloodwine and moved off to sit by Morn.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” Julian said, turning back to Lwaxana.</p><p>Lwaxana noticed that Jadzia had kept an ear tilted toward Julian and Lwaxana. But how she could expect to hear anything else when Morn was blabbering on, Lwaxana wasn’t sure. Lwaxana couldn’t read Lurian minds but she could barely hear her own thoughts over the barrage of gossipy information he was pouring into the heads of the people around him. She took a moment to narrow her mental focus to Julian and the task at hand.</p><p>“Well, I can sense that Garak’s very warm right now. Almost feverish.” She couldn’t actually sense him from where he was within the holosuite, but Quark had told her about the sauna holoprogram Garak had selected, and she was reasonably sure this at least was true.</p><p>Julian immediately started worrying. Earlier, when he’d beamed them to the infirmary, had the containment field around the patient being treated for Cartalian fever in the neighboring biobed faltered for a second? Could Garak have caught it somehow?</p><p>“Did you happen to notice anything else?” He couldn’t help but think about the other diagnostic symptoms of Cartalian fever, and his panic only increased.</p><p>“Hmmm, well, when I saw him here a little while ago he seemed kind of out of breath,” Lwaxana said, alluding to one of the symptoms he’d just thought about. That seemed to confirm it for him.</p><p>“Do you know where he is now?” Julian asked anxiously.</p><p>“He was headed for a holosuite.”</p><p>“Quark!” Julian yelled, leaning over the bar. “Which holosuite is Garak in?”</p><p>“Ow! No need to shout... Third one on the right.”</p><p>His barely touched glass of kanar sat forgotten on the bar as he hurried off.</p><p>*</p><p>Julian dashed up the stairs, and raced to the holosuite. The holosuite door was locked, and made an angry beep when he tried to open it. He tried his emergency medical override code and found that did not work either, even though it should open any door on the station. He still had one more code to try, one given to him by Garak himself...</p><p>After their first adventure in the <em>Julian Bashir, Secret Agent</em> program, Garak had suggested it would only be fair to grant Julian access codes that would allow him to interrupt Garak in a holosuite one day. This hadn’t come up until now because lately Garak had only gone to the holosuites during planned outings with Julian.</p><p>Julian typed in the code Garak had told him, grateful for having such a good memory as it was quite a long string of numbers and letters and Garak hadn’t allowed him to write it down. The doors beeped in approval and slid open.</p><p>He stepped in and the doors closed behind him. As his eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, he was greeted by the sight of a stunned, naked Garak basking on the heated rocks.</p><p>“Computer, robes...” Garak choked out. A robe materialized onto him, and, perhaps because of the lack of specificity in his frantic command, Julian was suddenly clad in a robe as well. His uniform peeked out at his feet and wrists and collar. He knew he looked ridiculous, but he had more pressing concerns.</p><p>“Garak, I’m so sorry to break in like this, but are you all right?”</p><p>“What are you doing here, doctor?” Garak said, mortified.</p><p>“I... Are you feeling too warm?” Julian himself was starting to feel far too warm, hot, feverish even, from the heat of the sauna, from the combination of real uniform and holographic robes, from the appealing glimpse he’d had of his friend’s naked body...</p><p>Julian tugged at the collar of his uniform, opening it up a few centimeters. It did nothing to relieve the heat spreading through him. “I was worried that you might have caught Cartalian fever from the patient next to you when I brought you to the Infirmary earlier, and—”</p><p>“As you can see, my temperature is just the result of the holoprogram doctor. Besides, Cardassians thrive at far warmer temperatures than humans or Bajorans prefer.”</p><p>“Sorry, again...” Julian apologized, and looked at him again. The holosuite did seem like the more reasonable, less convoluted explanation for his elevated temperature. And Garak didn’t really seem to be out of breath like Lwaxana had claimed. (Certainly Garak was not nearly as out of breath as Julian felt himself right now, in the presence of his breathtakingly handsome friend.) He was very relieved that Garak did not seem sick. “I suppose we’re even now. You broke into my private holoprogram and now I’ve broken into one of yours...”</p><p>Garak scoffed. “I’d hardly call us even. I didn't get to see <em>you</em> undressed when I visited your holoprogram uninvited.”</p><p>Garak winced. He’d only meant to indicate that he was annoyed at the fact that Julian had seen him naked just now, but he realized belatedly that it came across as him being annoyed that he hadn’t gotten to see Julian naked. He suddenly hoped an unstable wormhole would appear in front of him so he could step through it into an entirely unexplored quadrant of a distant galaxy where he would be able to assume a new identity, start a whole new life...</p><p>Julian grinned. “It was only pure chance that you didn’t. If you had shown up a few minutes later that day, maybe you would have caught me with my trousers down, like you so clearly hoped to...”</p><p>Garak rolled his eyes dramatically to deflect from his embarrassment at how accurately Julian had interpreted his poor phrasing.</p><p>It was true that he wouldn’t have minded catching sight of Julian without his trousers, but he really didn’t get the appeal of sleeping with holo characters and he had no desire to see Julian having sex with anyone else, real or fictional. It had been painful enough having to watch helplessly as Julian had kissed a number of beautiful women, some of whom looked like DS9 senior officers, in order to progress through the “plot” of the secret agent holoprogram on the day of the transporter malfunction. Thankfully, Julian had picked up on Garak’s discomfort and modified the program, such that every subsequent time they’d played <em>Julian Bashir, Secret Agent</em>, there hadn’t been nearly as many characters desperately throwing themselves at Julian. Garak had, of course, secretly dreamed about offering to play the role of the characters that would only give up information or a means of escape when kissed by Julian...</p><p>Julian sat down on the rock bench next to Garak, close but not touching him.</p><p>“Today has been such a strange day, huh?” Julian said, tilting his head back to look up at the cave ceiling.</p><p>“It has. Lwaxana has been particularly obnoxious, making me alter her wedding dress at the last minute and refusing to respect my mental privacy. Odo tried to arrest me, though I did at least deserve that. Then there was the unpleasant turbolift ride. Quark has been acting suspiciously, too. I still don’t know why he offered me this holosuite booking, but I did deactivate a camera that was hidden in the corner of the room, and it seems like he tried to rig the holosuite doors to malfunction too. The planned door malfunction hadn’t been sprung yet by the time I did my security sweep, so I was able to repair it before it became a problem.”</p><p>Julian’s mouth fell open in shock. “What?! That’s disturbing, Garak! Do you think someone was trying to set a trap for you? Or watch you?”</p><p>“Those seem like reasonable conclusions. I suppose Quark found someone who was willing to buy information about me.”</p><p>“I don’t like the thought of that.”</p><p>“Oh, it’s all part of the glamorous life of an exiled spy, my dear doctor,” Garak said, smiling sadly, and Julian gave him a sympathetic look.</p><p>“Why are you even still in here if it could be a trap?”</p><p>Garak had many reasons, but he wasn’t sure quite what to say. <em>Because if someone really wanted me dead then I would be in danger at any time, anywhere, but at least it’s comfortable here. Because if anyone had shown up to try to kill me or capture me, I might have gotten the chance to kill them instead, thus solving the problem more definitively. Because staying here where I may or may not be in imminent mortal danger felt far less terrifying than taking another ride in the turbolift to go back to my quarters...</em></p><p>Julian sighed, exasperated when Garak didn’t answer. Then his expression changed to fear as he wondered if Garak’s lack of response was a cautionary measure.</p><p>“Do you think we’re safe to talk freely now, or are we still being watched or listened to?” Julian asked in a panicked whisper, leaning in close. Garak smelled kanar on his breath. He didn’t realize Julian liked kanar.</p><p>“There appear to be no other listening devices, and you’re the only one with my access code to open the door,” Garak reassured him.</p><p>Julian exhaled and slouched back in relief. Then another thought occurred to him. “What about Lwaxana? Can she still read our thoughts from here?”</p><p>“Holosuites have technology that prevents psionic energy from passing through the walls to ensure privacy from Betazoids, so I think this is may, in fact, be the one place on the station where we’re safest from her.”</p><p>“Ha, good! I feel like she’s been messing with me all day. She has me doubting myself. I feel worried over things I’m usually sure of.” His eyes met Garak’s for a moment, and Julian gave him a small smile, then glanced away nervous.</p><p>“She’s been messing with me too... I’m sorry I ran away from the infirmary, though. That was inexcusable, and I’m entirely to blame for it.”</p><p>Julian frowned. “I really wish you had just <em>told</em> me that you were leaving instead of running away when I was in the other room looking for the PADD with the draft of my conference presentation on it.”</p><p>“I know, it was cruel of me to feign interest in your presentation to give myself an opening to leave unnoticed. I’ll do everything I can to make it up to you. I promise it wasn’t your fault that I left...”</p><p>“Why won’t you just let me take care of you? Don’t you trust me?”</p><p>He looked so hurt, and Garak knew there was no way around telling the truth without hurting him even more.</p><p>“My dear doctor... I don’t do well when I feel trapped in confined spaces, as you had the unfortunate privilege to observe earlier.”</p><p>“Acute claustrophobia,” Julian stated.</p><p>Garak nodded.</p><p>“And I can’t stand the vulnerability of being in a biobed, the lack of control... so waking up there when I wasn’t quite sure how I’d gotten there made me panic and feel trapped all over again. I knew I needed to get out of there before I passed out again... But I knew you care about me too much to let me leave when I was in such a state, so I felt like I had to deceive you...”</p><p>“All right, all right, I get it, I really do, but it still hurt. So... if you really mean it about wanting to make it up to me...” He paused in thought, then his eyes crinkled at the corners as an amusing and satisfying idea came to him. “...then how about I get to practice my conference talk with you once a day for the next two weeks? And each time you have to pay enough attention to ask me relevant questions about my research. AND you have give me at least one compliment on something you liked about my presentation each time I practice it!”</p><p>“A fair and just punishment that I would be delighted to undergo! I do love hearing you talk at length about your research, when I am not on the brink of a panic attack,” Garak said sincerely. “By the way, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about earlier? Why did you ask me to come with you to your quarters this afternoon?”</p><p>Julian froze. “Oh. I wanted to tell you something very personal. A secret.”</p><p>“Are you sure that’s wise?” Garak said, heart beating faster, a jumble of hope and fear, wondering again if Lwaxana had been telling the truth about Julian having feelings for him.</p><p>“Actually, I’m sure it <em>isn’t</em> wise. I’m sure it’s the stupidest thing I could possibly do, but I want to anyway. I want you to know me, Garak...”</p><p>“Then by all means... I want to know you too...” Garak said dreamily, daring to hope again for just a moment...</p><p>Then he pulled himself together. “I mean, as someone with access to emergency medical transport codes, you are quite a valuable intelligence target,” Garak teased to cover up his sincerity. He used to make a point of denying having been a spy, even to those who knew the truth like Julian. But ever since their holosuite adventures together, he knew Julian loved it when he talked like this, when he said nonsensical spy lingo in his most sultry voice...</p><p>Sure enough, Julian smiled and blushed, flattered and a little excited. But then his face fell again. “No, come on, take this seriously, please, Garak... You really can’t tell anyone, or it will ruin my career.”</p><p>Garak felt cold dread creep into him, despite the warmth of the air around him. He had hoped that if Julian wanted to be with him, then they could be together openly. His heart sank at the idea that Julian had already decided his career was more important than their relationship, dooming it before it even began.</p><p>“I promise,” Garak said solemnly.</p><p>Julian nodded but didn’t speak immediately. He fidgeted under Garak’s gaze, and tilted his feet up and down nervously, making his knees bounce. Garak looked away to try to make him more comfortable, and waited patiently as Julian searched for the words or the courage.</p><p>Minutes passed, and Garak was starting to think that Julian had decided against telling him after all, when Julian finally blurted out, “I’m genetically altered.” He didn’t elaborate, he just braced himself for Garak’s response.</p><p>It was not the confession Garak had expected at all, and he was thrown by it.</p><p>“I’m... not sure I understand the significance.”</p><p>“The <em>significance</em> is that I’m illegal! I’m a monster! I shouldn’t exist!” Julian sounded so angry at himself that it broke Garak’s heart.</p><p>“None of those things are true, my dear...”</p><p>“My whole life is based on a lie. I’m not even real. My parents used illegal genetic engineering techniques to change me, because I wasn’t what they wanted,” Julian said bitterly.</p><p>“That’s horrible. When did they do this to you?”</p><p>“When I was 6. I used to be a child called Jules, but he is gone now, completely erased. I stopped calling myself that once I found out what they did to him. So now I’m Julian, someone new and unrecognizable and ultimately fake.”</p><p>“I unfortunately know a bit about what it’s like to be such a disappointment to one’s parents that they try to change everything about you into what they want...” Julian suddenly turned his head and looked over at him with such pity and understanding, that Garak had to make a concerted effort not to recoil from the shame of admitting his own weaknesses. Garak didn’t elaborate, but he also didn’t look away, and they stayed like that for a little while, gazing at each other with a new sense of understanding.</p><p>“I’m so sorry that this happened to you, Julian,” Garak finally said, deciding to call him by his chosen name for once instead of his usual endearments for him.</p><p>“I’m sorry too, Garak. For lying to you. To everyone, really, but especially to you.”</p><p>“There’s no need to apologize! In fact, I’m impressed to learn that you understand the value of concealing the truth after all.” It was clear from Julian’s face that this wasn’t making him feel any better, so Garak kept trying. “But you mustn’t blame yourself for any of this. You did what you had to do to survive, there’s nothing wrong with that!”</p><p>“Garak... There is something wrong with it... If word of my augmentation status gets out, I’ll certainly lose my medical license, and I might get sent to prison, or to a research lab to be experimented on again—”</p><p>Julian sounded so frightened that Garak couldn’t stand it.</p><p>“No, you won’t,” he said firmly. “I won’t let them take you, Julian. If that ever seems like it’s going to happen, we’ll... we’ll go somewhere far away from here. I’ll help you escape. Maybe we can go through the wormhole and blow it up behind us so that whoever is chasing you can’t follow.”</p><p>“I don’t think either of us understands enough astrophysics to accomplish that.”</p><p>“Well, with my knowledge of homemade explosives, and your access to biomimetic gel, we might stand a chance,” Garak smiled sharply.</p><p>Julian stared at him, and kind of hoped he was joking. But Julian also knew that if it came down to a choice between a life of being imprisoned as a subject of scientific experimentation, or going along with one of Garak’s destructive escape plans... he would choose Garak every time.</p><p>Julian let some of the tension in his shoulders drain away.</p><p>“Thank you, Garak... I was so worried you might hate me or be disgusted by me, if you ever learned that I wasn’t real. That I wasn’t who you thought I was.”</p><p>“Don’t be ridiculous, my dear doctor. You're still exactly who I thought you were. You’ve always been the most kind, caring person I’ve ever known, and this revelation doesn’t change that in the slightest. And of course I still care about you, and of course you’re <em>real</em>, Julian. Just because you feel like you were... artificially constructed in some way, it doesn’t mean you’re less than anyone else. I know you consider your friend Data to be a real and wonderful person. Don’t you?”</p><p>“Yes, but he’s... that’s different... he wasn’t someone else before he was himself...” Julian stammered, trying and failing to find a legitimate way to put himself down while still showing his friend kindness.</p><p>“It <em>is</em> different than your situation, but not <em>that</em> different. I mean it. Your experience certainly differs from the way many people’s parents try to shape them, but it differs mainly in terms of methodology and degree. Treat yourself like you would treat Data, or any of your friends who might have worries about how much of their identity and self is really their own. We are all just the sum of our experiences and choices, we are all shaped by our circumstances to some degree, and we are all always, <em>always</em> changing.”</p><p>Julian looked at him, eyes glistening with tears. He let his hand rest on the back of Garak’s hand, then squeezed it tightly for a second. Garak wanted to tell him how much he loved him, to promise him he would always love him, to rest his forehead on Julian’s, to lean in and kiss him long and sweet, to taste the hint of kanar he could smell on his breath... but his own pleasure wasn't worth the risk of alienating his friend right now, not when Julian so desperately needed comfort and understanding. Garak flipped his hand over in Julian’s grip so that their palms were pressed together, and squeezed his hand back. Neither of them let go.</p><p>“You make me feel like I’m myself, Garak. You have no idea how much your acceptance of me has meant. Not just now, but ever since we first met. When everyone else thought I was annoying and too much to deal with, you actually wanted to listen.”</p><p>“The feeling is mutual, Julian,” he said, loving the feel of Julian’s name on his tongue, and loving the way Julian’s eyes lit up whenever he said it. “I felt so isolated, until you showed up on the station. Looking forward to conversations with you makes my days bearable.”</p><p>“I’m just so glad we found each other!” Julian burst out excitedly. Then he bit his lip, trying to contain his excitement at a thrilling new idea. “I have an odd request.”</p><p>“Anything, my dear Julian...” Garak said, earning him another flushed look.</p><p>“Would you wear your tux to Lwaxana’s wedding tomorrow?”</p><p>“I... hadn’t planned on it, but I will if it makes you happy.”</p><p>“It would make me very happy!! I’ll wear mine, too,” Julian beamed.</p><p>“We’ll make quite the striking pair, wearing old Earth fashion together. Are you sure Chief O’Brien won’t be jealous if you show up wearing a costume from one of <em>our</em> holoprograms instead of one of the outfits you wear when you go to the holosuites with him?” he teased.</p><p>Garak wasn’t at all sure if wedding guests in the Federation usually wore outfits that matched with their friends. They certainly didn’t on Cardassia... although maybe a courting couple would try to coordinate matching colors at least. Then again, no self-respecting Cardassian would wear any sort of historical costume to an enjoinment ceremony, regardless of their relationship status with the person asking them to commit such an appalling and bizarre fashion faux pas. (Fortunately, Garak knew that one strange benefit of being the only Cardassian onboard the station was that he could enthusiastically indulge in his dear doctor’s less-than-fashionable whims without a shred of embarrassment.)</p><p>Julian chuckled. “I’m sure Miles won’t mind. Besides, tuxes are formal wear, so they wouldn’t have been out of place at a wedding, back in the day. It makes more sense than wearing my aviator gear, that’s for certain.”</p><p>“If you say so.”</p><p>“But... yes, we will stand out, I’m sure of it,” he smiled. <em>I want everyone to know that we’re there together</em>, Julian thought, possessively.</p><p>Garak smiled back. He was almost certain that Julian had just asked him out on a date.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Julian and Garak deserved some privacy!!! I had to pepper in a few more slight misunderstandings, and address some of angst that I set up earlier, but, let's be real, these two are basically on the same page now. &lt;3</p><p>The scenes from TNG s6e16 (Birthright, Part I) where Data and Julian hang out are so sweet and adorable, and I couldn’t resist an opportunity to remind everyone about their beautiful friendship. (Also, it’s basically just very convenient for Garak that Data exists, because then Garak could avoid talking much about his own complicated history with his own shitty dad while comforting Julian.)</p><p>Thanks to the_last_dillards for both brainstorming and workshopping the idea about how to lure Julian into the holosuite!</p><p>Next chapter: Their conversation steers toward anti-telepathy counterintelligence measures</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Julian and Garak steer their conversation toward anti-telepathy counterintelligence measures</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Heads up, this is the smutty chapter! Feel free to skip if smut’s not your jam!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They still hadn’t let go of each other’s hands. After Julian had asked him to go with him to Lwaxana’s wedding, Garak had dared to interlace his fingers with Julian’s. At first, he had tentatively parted them with the tips of his own fingers, then began curling his fingers inward, slotting them into place until they each rested on the back of Julian’s hand, between his knuckles. Julian had mirrored his motions, and now they sat side-by-side, thighs together, palms together, clasped hands resting on top of Julian’s leg, with Julian gently running the pad his thumb slowly back and forth along the side of Garak’s thumb.</p><p>Garak felt the stress of the day melt away under Julian’s repetitive feather-light touch. Did Julian even realize how nice that felt? Did it feel just as good to him? Were human hands as sensitive as Cardassian ones? Just quietly holding the hand of the man he loved, Garak felt a sense of ease wash over him. He felt more like the self-proclaimed plain, simple Garak than he’d ever felt before.</p><p>But there was still one troubling question he couldn’t quite push out of his mind. “So who else knows about your genetic modification?” Garak knew better than anyone that information could be dangerous, and controlling its spread was of the utmost importance.</p><p>“Until today, just my parents and the doctors who did the procedures on me. But now you and Lwaxana know.”</p><p>“You told <em>her</em>??” Garak asked, incredulous.</p><p>“Of course not! I’m not <em>that</em> trusting and naïve, Garak. She definitely knew about it, though, so I suppose it must have been on my mind at some point, even though I’ve tried to be very careful ever since she’s been onboard the station... I even used some of the techniques you taught me for hiding information from mind-readers.”</p><p>“Oh?”</p><p>“Well, um, I kept my mind occupied with a lot of other thoughts to try to keep the things I didn’t want her to know away from the surface level of my mind.”</p><p>Garak looked suitably impressed, and Julian preened under his approval.</p><p>“Although, um, to be honest... I mostly thought about you, Garak,” Julian said, a sappy grin spreading on his face. “I thought about the books we’ve read, and the times we’ve played the secret agent holoprogram together, and how mercilessly you like to tease me about how inaccurate it is. And then I thought about everything I had forgotten to say to you at lunch today, and how wrong your interpretations of Shakespeare and Preloc are, and how breathtakingly handsome you are, and how desperately I want you to call me by my name sometimes, even though I do also love being <em>your</em> dear doctor—”</p><p>“Julian...”</p><p>“Yes, just like that!!” Julian sighed, delightedly. “I could think about you all day and it still wouldn’t be enough.”</p><p>They looked into each other’s eyes, full of promise and hope and desire. Suddenly the heat of the sauna program was nothing compared to the heat between the two of them.</p><p>“Hmm, well,” Garak said, his lips curling mischievously and his eyes softening, “out of an abundance of caution, perhaps I should give you some <em>new</em> ways to think about me.” Garak leaned his forehead against Julian’s tenderly, like he’d wanted to do earlier. The moment seemed better now. “Just in case.” The ends of their noses bumped softly, and Garak’s free hand cradled the back of Julian’s neck. “After all, keeping your mind completely occupied with me appears to be the best way to protect your secrets from intrusive Betazoids.”</p><p>Julian was matching his smile. “Well, Garak, you are the <em>expert</em> in counterintelligence, so who am I to question—”</p><p>Garak kissed him, and Julian pressed back with equal ferocity and urgency. Garak was pleased to find that Julian’s tongue did still taste a little bit like kanar, but also like something else, something he suspected was distinctly Julian. Garak drew Julian towards him, and Julian crawled eagerly into his lap without breaking the kiss.</p><p>Garak suddenly left Julian’s mouth wanting. Garak started kissing and licking the side of Julian’s neck where a Cardassian’s ridges would be, intrigued by the strange saltiness of his human sweat. As he sought more access, Garak pulled down on the collar of the lavender undershirt of Julian’s uniform as far as it would stretch (not nearly far enough).</p><p>The odd rough texture of Garak’s tongue followed by the soft sucking of his lips made Julian’s skin tingle. Heat and pressure started to spread through him.</p><p>“Mmm, yes, Garak, I think it’s working... yes, I definitely can’t think about anything except for you at the moment... Garak, don’t stop—<em>ohh</em>, that was nice!—don’t stop kissing me and touching me until I can barely even remember who I am, let alone my darkest secrets... keep going, until you have to remind me what my name is, over and over and over—”</p><p>Garak was more than happy to oblige the beautiful man straddling him. He kissed his way back up Julian’s neck and jaw until their lips met again.</p><p>“Julian...” Garak’s lips moved against Julian’s as he said his name. “Julian...” Garak’s breath ghosted over Julian’s tongue. “Julian...” Garak shifted to let his lips brush Julian’s ear as he softly said, “I love you...” With their chests pressed together, Julian didn’t just hear it, he also felt the words resonating through him.</p><p>“Oh, I love you too, Garak!” Julian exclaimed.</p><p>Julian rubbed the scales on Garak’s neck ridges, eliciting a few needy panting gasps from him, then slipped his hands into Garak’s robe to tease it open and get a better look at him. Garak impatiently commanded both of their holographic robes away, not willing to stop touching Julian for even a second. Their robes vanished, leaving him naked, but Julian was still wearing his uniform. Garak wanted nothing more than to rip it to shreds, but he settled for tugging at it insistently.</p><p>“Julian...”</p><p>Julian laughed and gave Garak a quick kiss, then put his feet on the ground, and stepped off of him. The sudden absence of his weight and heat was unbearable, even though he knew the momentary separation was necessary in order for Julian to get rid of his clothes. Garak started to stand to help him undress, but Julian grinned and shook his head and stopped him from getting up with a light finger on his chest. Julian narrowed his eyes slyly at Garak’s eagerness and anticipation. Instead of hurrying, Julian seemed to be taking extra time. He drew out every motion as long as he could, enjoying the feeling of having Garak’s complete attention as he slowly revealed himself bit by beautiful bit. It was maddening. Excruciating. And absolutely mesmerizing. <em>Patience has its rewards</em>, Garak reminded himself.</p><p>Once Julian finished slipping out of his clothes, he straddled Garak’s lap again, draping his arms around Garak’s neck. Julian noticed that his mouth was level with the inverted teardrop on Garak’s forehead, his <em>chufa</em>, and—drawing inspiration from one of the novels Garak had given him—he pressed his lips tentatively against it. Garak moaned and enthusiastically indicated he wanted more. Julian filled the divot with the wet warmth of his tongue and he felt Garak quiver in pleasure. He licked into it, letting the tip of his tongue glide around the curves, and was rewarded by a desperate moan from Garak. Julian wondered what Garak would taste like elsewhere, and what sort of fascinating needy sounds he would make when he licked him in those places. He hoped he would get the chance to find out soon.</p><p>“Julian, please... stop teasing me... I want you...”</p><p>“Mmm, and how exactly do you want me, my love?”</p><p>“Like—<em>oh!</em>—like Glinn Telkar with the Federation ambassador.”</p><p>Julian grinned, and finally relented on his pleasurable torture of Garak’s <em>chufa</em>. Cradling the back of Garak’s head and kissing him all the while, Julian tilted Garak backward slowly until Garak was lying down with Julian astride him.</p><p>Of course it would be too much to expect Garak to be completely straightforward about what he wanted (<em>why say something directly when one can imply?</em>, as the slippery tailor often said), but Julian remembered that steamy scene from<em> The Fragile Tides of Allegiance</em> in perfect detail. As he had told Garak on the day that they discussed this book, just a few weeks ago, Cardassian repetitive epics would all be much more bearable if they contained a handful of chapters like that. Garak had rebuked that Julian was reading the wrong genre if that’s what he wanted—Preloc wrote <em>literature</em>, not smut, he’d scoffed primly. So, needless to say, Julian felt very smug to discover now that Garak was more turned on by those scenes than he had admitted.</p><p>Well, if he was going to take cues from the scene Garak was referencing, then, first, he would sit back and let Garak fill him, guiding him gently in with his hands, and, according to the text, it would feel better than anything he’d ever felt before, despite the vast variety of alien lovers he’d had in the past.</p><p>Over lunch, Julian had teased Garak about the author’s obvious Cardassian superiority complex shamelessly on display here. He’d also argued against the stereotype that Federation members were all promiscuous xenophiles—though he knew that he personally didn't have a leg to stand on.</p><p>Then Julian would start to move his hips slowly and grip Garak’s shoulder ridges tightly and massage the scales there, and Garak would moan and wonder how he had managed to win the heart of someone so unexpected, so unlike him yet so perfect for him.</p><p>As they’d picked at the Larish pie they were splitting, Julian had critiqued the plausibility of this part, asking how the human character would have even known to play with the Cardassian’s neck ridges if this was the first Cardassian he’d ever talked to, let alone slept with. Garak had parried that maybe the character had simply gained that knowledge from a book, “<em>just like you, my dear doctor... unless you’ve taken a Cardassian lover I don’t know about...?</em>” he’d teased with a twinkle in his eye, daring Julian to admit that Garak was the only Cardassian he was interested in. Julian didn’t give him the satisfaction. Instead he’d blushed and said that as a doctor he needed to know about the physiology and anatomy of many alien species.</p><p>Then Garak would start to thrust into him faster, and Julian’s back would arch, and Garak would stroke him, and Julian would ride him, gasping, until they were both completely spent and sticky.</p><p>Julian hadn’t managed to form any coherent literary commentary about this part of the scene. It wouldn’t have been polite to talk about such details over lunch anyway.</p><p>Finally, they would use their tongues to clean the evidence of their treasonous affair from each other’s bodies, then collapse into each other’s arms, and use the breath they hadn’t already given to each other to recite romantic poetry in each other’s native tongues, and swear to love each other forever in between tender kisses.</p><p>In the replimat, Julian had criticized the way the characters’ professions of love had felt so hollow and empty given that in the very next chapter both of them were forced by circumstance to betray each other in order to uphold the values and interests of their respective states. Garak had made the dubious claim that their subsequent betrayal didn't mean that their love hadn’t been very real, it just meant that they were strong enough to be able to set aside that love to maintain their loyalty to the state. Julian hadn’t liked that answer at all and had asked if it was even possible for Cardassians to love someone more than they loved the state. Garak had simply smiled enigmatically over his rokassa juice and said that he doubted any Cardassian would ever admit to such a thing.</p><p>Now, in the holosuite, with his legs spread wide, with Garak beneath him and inside him and moving with him, Julian didn’t feel like thinking about the doomed romances in terrible, poorly written, melodramatic Cardassian literature any more. He certainly didn’t need the stimulation of their lunchtime literature debates when there was plenty of other stimulation going on right now.</p><p>He met Garak’s eyes, and the intensity of his adoring gaze overwhelmed him. They were in love! Garak <em>loved</em> him! Just the thought of Garak’s love made Julian glow brighter than a supernova. The warmth that had been coiling and gathering within him finally burst forth, and he cried out in ecstasy. Garak’s release soon followed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I just couldn’t help myself... Garak and Julian MUST go from not acknowledging their feelings for each other at all to IMMEDIATELY saying I love you and fucking like their lives depend on it. XD</p><p>It’s also legally required for me to outline at least one chapter of a shitty Cardassian novel each time I write a Garashir fic just so I can make Julian dunk on Garak’s terrible taste in literature lol. I don’t enjoy coming up with the titles, though, so if anyone is just, like... overflowing with ideas for titles of Cardassian literature of any variety (repetitive epics, enigma tales, poetry, filthy lizard smut banned by the Obsidian Order, etc...), I would LOVE to hear your ideas (so I can steal them for use in future fics heeheehee).</p><p>Not sure if “why say something directly when one can imply?” is paraphrased from someone else’s fic or not. I could have sworn something like that was an actual Garak quote, but since it doesn’t seem to be, I’m now worried that it’s familiar bc I’ve read it in a fic before lol... </p><p>I have a long list of credits/shoutouts for inspiring various bits of this chapter:</p><p>-the_last_dillards for giving me some helpful suggestions about how to improve the end of this chapter<br/>-mustangsjoeka for letting me read their garashir WIP about handholding - it just gave me so many feels that I had to add a whole bit about handholding to the beginning of the chapter!<br/>-teroknortailor for the term <i>chufa</i><br/>-Andy Robinson himself (may he NEVER see this or any of my fanworks) for <a href="https://mkkstartrek.tumblr.com/post/127688110134/garaks-spoon-im-about-to-post-the-link-to">deciding</a> that the Cardassian forehead thingy is an erogenous zone lmao<br/>-seraph5 for drawing Julian giving <a href="https://seraph5.tumblr.com/post/629606028250628096/ahem-bashir-gives-good-spoon-andrew-robinson">good spoon</a> :eyes emoji vibrating rapidly dot gif:</p><p>Comments would be greatly appreciated, if you have the time/energy to leave one!! I desperately crave your reactions and opinions! &lt;3</p><p>Next chapter: Mysteries are solved. Retribution is planned.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mysteries are solved. Retribution is planned.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Julian luxuriated, lying on the sauna rocks, splayed out on his back. He was technically wearing the holographic robe again—he rather liked the silky feel of it on his skin—but it was flung wide open, barely covering any of him. He shimmied himself a little bit on the rock platform until his head was dangling over the edge, and he tilted it back so that he could gaze at Garak upside down.</p><p>It really was lovely the way that all those differently sized scales formed intricate patterns on his back. Next time, or maybe the time after that, he would have to examine them more closely and ask for a proper anatomy lesson. He was thrilled that Garak hadn’t bothered putting any clothes back on. Julian would gladly endure temperatures of 32 °C more often if this was the sight he would be treated to.</p><p>Garak was standing over at the computer by the holosuite door, using it to access station files that he really shouldn’t have been able to.</p><p>“The turbolift we were in earlier was sabotaged,” Garak said, matter-of-factly.</p><p>“What?! Are you sure?” Julian rolled himself over so that he was lying on his belly and resting his chin on his hands.</p><p>“According to the Engineering logs, Chief O’Brien never figured out what went wrong. It just started working again almost as soon as we left. But it looks to me like there were encrypted commands sent to the turbolift at both the time when it stopped and the time when it started moving.”</p><p>Julian got up and stood behind Garak so that he could look over his shoulder and see what was on the screen. “Do you know where the commands came from?”</p><p>Garak tapped a few more keys.</p><p>“The security office, apparently.”</p><p>“Why would Odo stop our turbolift? You don’t think he <em>meant </em>to give you a panic attack?” Julian slid his arms around Garak’s middle, unable to keep his hands off of him for very long now that they were together.</p><p>“I’m not sure, my dear.”</p><p>“Hmmm. It doesn’t make sense. Well, did you have any luck figuring out why Quark gave you this sauna program and holosuite time for free, and then tried to trap you in here and monitor you?”</p><p>“No, not yet.”</p><p>“Well, maybe the holosuite time’s not complementary purely as a result of Quark’s own generosity. Can’t we just see who’s paying him for it?” Julian jabbed a few times at the screen.</p><p>“Julian, please,” Garak huffed, “no one spying on me would be so amateur as to send Quark a financial record of such an obvious attempt at—” He stopped, the evidence before him proving him wrong. “Well, you’re right, there is an account number here. It’s from... the Bank of Betazed.”</p><p>“Lwaxana,” Julian said.</p><p>“Then perhaps she’s our turbolift saboteur as well. You told me that she’s marrying Odo tomorrow, maybe she was with him in the security office, and either stopped the turbolift herself or convinced Odo to do so.”</p><p>“But what could she want from you? And if she is a spy or an assassin, then why is she being so obvious about everything?”</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>“Why did she make you have a panic attack in the turbolift only to give you a relaxing holoprogram later?”</p><p>“Perhaps after her first failed attempt to capture me by shutting down the turbolift, she wanted me to let my guard down to make it easier to capture or kill me? Maybe she didn’t expect you to be with me either in the turbolift or in here...”</p><p>“No, uh... she’s the one who sent me here by telling me that you might be sick.”</p><p>“Interesting. I’m beginning to wonder if what she wanted was for us to get stuck somewhere together.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“I’m still not sure, but it would explain both the turbolift sabotage and the holosuite door sabotage, and...” He paused, and frowned. “Do you think it’s possible she’s... getting off on our feelings for each other somehow?”</p><p>When Julian looked puzzled, Garak continued. “As a Betazoid she might get some kind of vampiric secondhand satisfaction out of other people being in love with each other... When she first came up to me in the Replimat, she thought you and I were on a romantic date, and I corrected her of course. But then she came to my shop and told me you had feelings for me. Again, I didn’t believe her, obviously, because she wanted something from me and she <em>knew</em> that was exactly what I desperately wanted to hear... But I suppose I ought to reevaluate her actions now that I’ve learned she was telling the truth. I think it’s possible she just wanted us to talk about our feelings for each other and get together, so that she could experience our romantic bliss as if it were her own.”</p><p>“I guess that all fits... but it still all seems like a ridiculous overreaction on her part. Why did she think we were incapable of getting together on our own? I thought we were making good progress!! I mean I guess I’ve been trying to go slow so as not to scare you away, because I know how hard emotional vulnerability can be for you...”</p><p>“It was hard for me to even imagine that you could feel the same way about me.”</p><p>“Oh, Garak...” Julian held him closer. Garak found himself marveling at the fact that Julian still so much warmer than him even in the elevated temperature of the sauna program. Julian was an inextinguishable star burning brighter than anything else in the galaxy. And, somehow, he was all his.</p><p>Garak let his hands drop from the holosuite console, and he turned around in Julian’s arms so he could face him. Garak looked up into his eyes.</p><p>“It’s all right now, my dear. I love you, and I’m so happy you love me back.”</p><p>Julian leaned down to kiss him, slow and sweet and devoted. Garak lost track of time, dizzy with love, completely swept away.</p><p>When they finally parted, Garak’s ability to think returned to him and he felt a renewed anger at Lwaxana.</p><p>“I hate her for breaking into our minds, Julian...”</p><p>“I know. I’m not too pleased about it either.”</p><p>“The last time someone was in your mind without permission like this was when the Lethean attacked you last year, around your birthday. I was so scared I might lose you...”</p><p>“It’s not the same, Garak... Lwaxana’s not trying to kill us, for one thing,” Julian hoped.</p><p>“No. Perhaps not. But she still has dangerous information that she could use against you, or let slip accidentally.”</p><p>“It’s possible she doesn’t even know my genetic status. Maybe she somehow really does think my most closely guarded ‘secret’ is just that I am in love with you... which is hilarious because that’s actually the information that I was just using to distract her,” Julian said, with amusement.</p><p>“I’m not willing to risk your safety on your hunch that she might not know or the blind hope that she will protect your secrets. We have to find out for certain what she knows and what she plans to do with that information, and then—”</p><p>“All right. We’ll find out, I promise. But before you do anything, will you let me first test the possibility that she just thinks my love for you is my big secret?”</p><p>“Fine.”</p><p>“Hmm. Garak...?” Julian suddenly looked mischievous.</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“Before we even do any of that, can we please do <em>something</em> to make Lwaxana realize that what she has been doing is not okay?”</p><p>“Ah, well, usually in a new relationship I try to save ‘plotting revenge against our common enemies’ until after the third date at least,” Garak teased, “but I will gladly make an exception for you, my dear doctor. If you want to move a bit faster in our relationship, then by all means...”</p><p>“Excellent, I thought you might be interested,” Julian chuckled. “Well I think we still ought to show up wearing tuxes, because I’ve grown rather attached to that idea. So, I propose that tuxes are a non-negotiable required part of the plan, agreed?”</p><p>“Agreed.”</p><p>“Okay, so, what if we go as a couple, holding hands, generally being lovey-dovey boyfriends on a cute date... but then we pretend to get in a dramatic fight and messily break up so that she regrets interfering with the course of our relationship?”</p><p>“Intriguing. What will we fight about?”</p><p>“I’m not sure, but let’s plan it all out now and get on the same page so we don’t accidentally hurt each other in the moment. I think we have to come up with something that would be a serious dealbreaker. Not just something we find mildly annoying about each other, like, for example, how extraordinarily bad your taste in literature is,” Julian teased.</p><p>“Oh, yes, a disagreement with a certain amount of weight will be necessary to our deception, if we want her to believe we are truly incompatible... And I suspect it will also be necessary to ‘fight’ about more serious topics, because... despite my better judgment, I truly love everything I find most annoying about you. <em>Especially</em> your horrible wardrobe and your puerile James Bond obsession. That is how <em>thoroughly</em> you have warped my impressionable mind.”</p><p>“Well, I’m very pleased to know that I have helped you appreciate some of the finer things in life, like the fun of wearing clashing colors and reading unrealistic spy stories!” Julian said, delighted. Garak groaned, like he couldn’t believe this is what his life had come to, and Julian laughed.</p><p>“And I love how absolutely infuriating you are too, my dearest,” Julian added, warmly.</p><p>Then Julian kissed him, and this time they were both absolutely ravenous.</p><p>“Well,” Garak said, catching his breath, “I must say I am quite interested in this revenge plan, and I certainly wouldn’t mind spending a few more hours here with you... learning more about each other, discussing where you see our relationship going, and planning out how to deceive a Betazoid about the nature of our relationship... Especially because our <em>dear</em> friend Lwaxana is paying for all of the outrageous holosuite overtime fees we are sure to be incurring.”</p><p>“Okay! But... I think I’m a bit tired of this cave,” Julian said. “Let’s go to my place in Hong Kong. I’ll turn off the story mode and all the holo characters, and we can just hang out in my flat... talk about our long-term relationship goals... write a script for our fight... and then maybe run some <em>experiments</em> about whether the bed or the couch is the best venue for our more <em>passionate</em> debates.”</p><p>“What an excellent idea, my love.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yeah... They’re just gonna stay in there all night... They have absolutely NO respect for Quark wanting to close up the bar so he can go to sleep. Also, I’m glad that FINALLY, a number of chapters too late, they had the sense to go hang out somewhere actually comfortable instead of... a slab of rock in a hot humid cave, only suitable to lizards.</p><p>Thanks to IcyKali for the idea to mention the Lethean attack! </p><p>Sorry it’s been so long since I last updated this! Since a lot of this chapter was just plotting and planning, I really needed to figure out how some stuff was gonna go down in the final chapter before I could post this one, and I was very indecisive. On the plus side, the fact that I’m posting this at all means the next chapter will be up soon! Like, a few days at most!!! AAAAAHH!!!!! (Oh, and another secret plus side is that, in the meantime, while this fic has been languishing, I’ve still been working on a bunch of other Garashir fics, so expect some of those to start surfacing not too long from now once I finish writing/editing them.)</p><p>Next chapter: The schemer becomes the schemed.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The schemer becomes the schemed</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*Majel Barrett voice* ...AND NOW THE CONCLUSION!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was Lwaxana’s big day. She had hoped that her plans to get Julian and Garak together would help distract her from her own romantic woes, but since Garak had instantly disabled the monitoring device yesterday, she didn’t know how her plan had gone, and it had just become another source of worry. She hadn’t even gotten the chance to see Garak and find out what happened while picking up her altered wedding dress—he’d had it delivered to her quarters.</p><p>She smiled at Odo, who smiled nervously back. She wanted to speculate with him about what might have happened with Garak and Julian, but he had enough to worry about at the moment since he was fully focused on his task of convincing her ex-husband that their marriage was legitimate.</p><p>As the wedding guests trickled in, she smiled at them too. She even managed one for her ex-husband. It was supposed to be a happy occasion after all, and he was the one they would have to convince. It wouldn’t do to give him any reason to doubt that her happiness was sincere.</p><p>Julian and Garak arrived together, and it was immediately obvious that they were wearing matching outfits. Black suits, with white shirts and black ribbons tied in bows around their necks. Almost all of the other guests were in their Starfleet uniforms, with a handful in casual civilian clothes. Every one of her guests was looking at them, wondering why they were dressed like that.</p><p>A few of the human guests identified the style of their suits as “tuxedos,” and one of them briefly wondered if the doctor and the tailor were getting married to each other today too, since pre-warp human grooms used to wear this kind of outfit.</p><p>Well, really! The sheer nerve! Of <em>course</em> Garak would show up to <em>her</em> wedding dressed as though he was the one getting married himself! After choosing to make alterations to her most bland pale blue dress, instead of any of the colorful options she’d sent him? Oh, she was furious!</p><p>She saw Julian take Garak’s hand. She caught their eyes and smiled at them too, congratulating herself for getting them to talk about their feelings, while still annoyed that the two of them were outshining her on her special day. Just because it was a fake wedding didn’t mean she didn’t want people to pay attention to her!</p><p>Julian and Garak found seats together. They couldn’t stop stealing longing glances at each other, and they couldn’t stop thinking about each other. In fact, she was being bombarded by their thoughts. Julian’s curious observation of the feeling of the scales on the back of Garak’s hand, and Garak’s stunned amazement that Julian actually wanted to be with him, and Julian’s daydreams about trying to get away with playing footsie with Garak during the ceremony, and Garak’s gratitude toward Quark for conspiring to get them together—</p><p>Wait, <em>Quark??</em> Lwaxana was a little bit miffed that her role in developing their relationship hadn’t been appreciated. She took a deep breath to clear her head, and resumed smiling at guests, while consoling herself that at least her schemes to get them together had worked. After all she hadn’t really been expecting credit... it just would have been nice, that’s all...</p><p>*</p><p>Later, at the reception, Lwaxana watched as Julian and Garak danced. They laughed together as Julian completely failed to match Garak’s gracefulness. They were still the center of attention. She understood it. They were adorable, and so clearly in love. The tension between them had been going on for so long that everyone on the station seemed to be aware of it, and everyone who had noticed it over the years was just as eager as she was to see it get resolved. So she <em>understood</em> it, but it didn’t stop her from being just a little bit jealous. She knew Odo was willing to act like he was in love with her for an evening, but it wouldn’t last a second longer than that.</p><p>Julian twirled Garak around, and then dipped him backward, kissing him deeply. She was able to forget her own petty jealousy for a moment as it was replaced by the warm tender feeling of their love for each other. She could detect that Garak immensely enjoyed being the one seduced. Garak felt like he was floating, suspended weightlessly, Julian’s strong arms around him balancing perfectly against the pull of the station’s artificial gravity. Julian, meanwhile, apparently loved getting to be “<em>just like James Bond! but also WITH James Bond!!!”...</em> whatever <em>that</em> meant.</p><p>The song ended, and Julian reluctantly broke off the kiss and slowly, gently lifted Garak back to his feet. They wandered off the dance floor hand in hand, both out of breath, and feeling a thrill from that public display of affection.</p><p>*</p><p>Quark found himself being approached by the happy couple.</p><p>“Quark!” Garak said, loudly. “Thank you ever so much for that holosuite reservation last night! Without your little plan to trap us in there together, I may never have gotten together with the love of my life!” He put a hand around Julian’s hip to pull him closer, and Julian just smiled at Garak, completely besotted.</p><p>Quark flapped his arms and tried to shush him. “Don’t you dare go spreading hurtful untrue rumors about my generosity, it wasn’t even my—”</p><p>“No, really, Quark we have to thank you,” Julian interrupted. “We were thinking of giving you some kind of donation? We’re just not sure what the appropriate tip is for a service like ‘helping us find our soulmates’... but it seems like a very valuable service to us, so just name your price and we’ll find a way to make it happen.”</p><p>Quark stopped trying to protest his involvement. “Yes, I suppose I did help, didn’t I?”</p><p>His eyes glazed over as he ran some calculations. What amount was reasonable to ask for? He’d never once thought about the monetary value of finding a soulmate, and now that he was put on the spot he felt overwhelmed by the task.</p><p>He obviously was going to ask for something exorbitant, because it was a very valuable unique thing. But he also wanted to get paid eventually, so he couldn’t ask for so much that Julian and Garak would have to turn to bank robbery in order to get it for him, since they might end up getting caught, and then he wouldn’t get <em>any</em> of their money.</p><p>He was aware that Starfleet officers who lived in areas with a significant non-Federation population received a small discretionary stipend, but he didn’t expect Julian had a large stash of money stored away. Julian seemed like the type to spend what he had as soon as he got it, or—Gint forbid!—return any unused funds from the month back to Starfleet. He shuddered.</p><p>So how much did Garak make? That unfortunately couldn’t be much either. He took on expensive commissions sometimes, but usually it was just mending ripped Starfleet uniforms, which he did practically for free. Quark truly wasn’t sure how Garak had kept his shop open in such a prime spot on the Promenade with how little business he got. But he suspected it had something to do with arrangements made by Garak’s former employer.</p><p>Quark was jolted out of his thoughts by Lwaxana, one of his co-conspirators, suddenly heading toward him and Garak and Bashir. He started to panic. He had to make sure she didn’t clear up their misconception or he would lose his profit!</p><p>*</p><p>When she overheard Garak and Julian thanking Quark, Lwaxana had excused herself from the guests she was entertaining, and walked over to them as fast as decorum, her degree of pregnancy, and her impractical dress would allow. It wasn’t actually a particularly restrictive dress, but it was certainly more so than traditional Betazoid wedding garb.</p><p>She was frustrated that Quark was getting all the credit for her plans, and wanted to set the record straight.</p><p>“Hello, friends,” she said diplomatically to Julian, Garak, and Quark.</p><p>“Hi, Lwaxana! Have you heard the news? We’re together now!!” Julian excitedly lifted Garak’s hand up in his, then let their still-clasped hands fall back down. Garak rolled his eyes, but his smile was wide, and he felt nothing but joy as his partner proudly showed him off.</p><p>“Congratulations, I’m so—”</p><p>“All thanks to Quark,” Garak said.</p><p>Lwaxana started to dispute this, but Quark was already talking over her, saying, “Yes, that’s right! Now, Lwaxana, I actually have some urgent business to discuss with you, if you’ll just come with me for a moment...”</p><p>She smiled at them apologetically, and stepped away with Quark.</p><p>“What is it, Quark?”</p><p>There was nothing to read from Quark, so she still had some of her Betazoid senses trained on Julian and Garak.</p><p>
  <em>“Well, I’m going to grab some food. Want anything, dear?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“No thanks.” </em>
</p><p>“If you let them think it was me that set them up, then I stand to make a tidy profit. I am willing to give you up to 10% of that profit.”</p><p>Out of nowhere, Garak felt so much love for his considerate partner that Lwaxana got a little rush from it. It really was incredible. It put her in a better mood and made her feel a little bit more charitable towards Quark.</p><p>“All right, <em>fine</em>, I won’t tell them. I just wanted a little appreciation for my work, that’s all. And I really don’t care about the money, keep it.”</p><p>“Thank you!!” he said, placing his wrists together and curling his fingers in the Ferengi gesture of appreciation. “May the Great Material Continuum always provide what you need!”</p><p>She smiled at him, and reciprocated the gesture even though she wasn’t quite sure if she was supposed to or not.</p><p>She noticed then that something seemed off with Julian and Garak. Some of their feelings for each other had suddenly turned sharp, and it was souring her own mood considerably. She hadn’t realized until that moment just how much she’d been relying on their positive emotions to maintain her own semblance of happiness. She turned to watch them, and saw that the tuxedo’ed pair was now actually pretty close to the part of the room that she and Quark had wandered off to.</p><p>“Slow down, Julian, dear. No one wants to watch you inhale your food,” Garak chided.</p><p>“At least I don’t chew the same bite for five minutes, like you,” Julian snapped back, mouth still full. “Although honestly, you should consider using the extra time you spend chewing to come up with better rebuttals to my criticisms of Cardassian literature.”</p><p>“Unfortunately I am only willing to put the same amount of effort into defending a piece of literature as you put into analyzing it in the first place. Your insipid critiques usually belie the fact that even a fundamental understanding of the text is beyond your grasp.”</p><p>“Ugh, you’re infuriating!”</p><p>Lwaxana wondered if this was how Cardassian flirting usually worked. She didn’t see the appeal of insulting or arguing with your loved one, but she thought it was sweet of Julian to make the effort to adopt Garak’s customs. The two of them didn’t really seem to be enjoying it, but then again, it was clear from their thoughts that they still loved each other. In fact...</p><p>She did a psychic double-take. Inexplicably, despite their tiff, they both seemed to be thinking about marriage and how exhilarating and amazing it would be to marry each other.</p><p>“Oh, this is silly! Both of you are thinking the same thing... One of you should just ask the other already!!” she said, grinning.</p><p>Julian looked at her, eyes wide, biting his lip, hopeful, nervous, then turned back to Garak.</p><p>“Well, I, uh, wasn’t going to ask you about this until, well I don’t know when, but, um, I guess since Lwaxana already seems to know you want it too... Garak, would you marry me?”</p><p>“Of course I’ll marry you—”</p><p>“Oh!!! I’m so happy!!”</p><p>“—anywhere but Cardassia, my love.”</p><p>“Wait, what is <em>that</em> supposed to mean?”</p><p>“I mean that I’m happy to marry you here, because our enjoinment would not be legally recognized on Cardassia anyway.”</p><p>“Are we...” Julian stammered. “Is our relationship... not <em>real</em> to you? Am I just some temporary fling? Just a placeholder until you meet someone <em>better</em>?”</p><p>Julian’s voice kept getting louder, and Lwaxana could sense that this fear of rejection was something he’d felt deeply and often. Garak remained completely calm and level. As though he was sweetly comforting his lover rather than easing a blade up under his ribs, cold, precise, straight into the heart.</p><p>Wait, had that specific imagery come from either of their thoughts? Or from someone else who was watching? The couple had drawn quite a bit of attention now. Lwaxana was finding it hard to isolate just Garak’s and Julian’s thoughts and feelings amongst the overwhelming bombardment of perspectives on their fight that the crowd was supplying.</p><p>“The <em>point</em> of marriage on Cardassia is to join together to serve the state more efficiently than one would apart. To provide the structure of a family unit for the purpose of raising one’s offspring. I don’t see how I can have that with you, when you have no interest in serving the Cardassian Union. When my future children—”</p><p>“Garak, hold on, maybe I don’t <em>want</em> to have children. Maybe I think that you and I are enough for each other. The point of a marriage should be to take care of each other, not to, I don’t know, raise as many babies as possible to offer up as sacrifices to the state.” He practically spat the last line.</p><p>“Oh, my love... You misunderstand... I wouldn’t be having children with <em>you</em>. You will always be my partner, my family, my entire heart, my <em>everything</em>... you could even be my husband in the Federation’s eyes... but in order to be a good citizen, my true spouse must be Cardassian too so that my children can be fully Cardassian, not half-human.”</p><p>“So let me get this straight... You really expect me to stay with you while you marry and have children with someone else? Unbelievable!”</p><p>“Marriage on Cardassia is about duty, not love. The concepts are entirely unrelated. My dear, please...”</p><p>“In case you’ve forgotten, you’re not even <em>welcome</em> on Cardassia anymore,” Julian said, and it was ruthless. Garak’s eyes flashed dangerously. “So all this talk of Cardassian marriage values is completely pointless. Sorry, <em>dear</em>, but you’re stuck here with me and my horribly sentimental <em>Federation</em> concepts of love and marriage.”</p><p>“Well, you needn’t worry about our future together, because it’s OVER between us!” Garak said angrily, and stormed off. Julian stood in stunned silence for a second then walked in the other direction, angry tears in his eyes.</p><p>*</p><p>The gold pressed latinum bars in Quark’s eyes faded. He was so frustrated with himself! If only he’d named a reasonable price and gotten them to agree to it before they broke up... But noooOOOoooo, he’d gotten so distracted thinking about the minutiae that he hadn’t managed to close the deal, and now he would get nothing. For a brief glittering moment, he had been about to make money for doing absolutely nothing, and now... now, he had no one to blame but himself for squandering such a perfect opportunity.</p><p>*</p><p>Lwaxana watched in confusion and alarm. Most of her wedding guests had been watching the ex-couple’s fight too, and they soon turned to each other to talk about what had just happened in hushed voices. She could detect that some of them were judging Julian and Garak for causing such a dramatic scene at someone else’s wedding instead of having that conversation in private, some of them were sad to see the end of their friend’s new relationship, and some of them were actually kind of relieved they wouldn’t have to get medical treatment from a doctor who was sleeping with a former oppressor.</p><p>Lwaxana felt heartbroken. She had worked so hard to get them together, and it had already catastrophically failed. Moreover, she knew that this wasn’t the kind of fight they could reconcile from: their cultural values and relationship goals were completely at odds. She’d tried to breeze past significant cultural divides like that in her own relationships, and that’s what had landed her here in this current mess of a fake wedding.</p><p>Yesterday, she’d thought that she understood what she read in their minds, but clearly she hadn’t understood their feelings and expectations for each other at all. Or maybe it was time for her to admit that relationships were a lot more complicated than just wanting each other.</p><p>Oh, how she wished she hadn’t done anything to interfere with their relationship! They were happy before, even if they weren’t together. And her meddling had changed all of that, and driven them further apart.</p><p>At one end of the room, Garak and Keiko were talking about which plants contained toxins that could cause sub-lethal amounts of pain or discomfort if prepared correctly. Both of them were furious, and Keiko seemed to be angrier at Julian than even Garak was. Odo drifted toward them. She wondered if he was heading there to comfort his friend or if he was just interested in determining whether he would have to arrest these two for conspiracy to instigate plant-based food poisoning.</p><p>At the other end of the room, Julian was hugging Miles tightly and sobbing into his shoulder, while Jadzia was rubbing Julian’s back in comforting circles. Miles was awkwardly saying things like “there, there” and “you deserve better than the likes of him anyway.” Meanwhile, Jadzia was giving Julian recommendations of her favorite people to sleep with on the station, and telling him he should totally hit them up while he was on the rebound. Miles tried not to listen to Jadzia. He really did his best not to imagine any of the people she mentioned in a sexual context. He truly didn’t want to think about either of his friends sleeping with Captain Boday, or Morn, or the Klingon chef, or the Gorn holovid actress, or the Bolian librarian...</p><p>Jadzia’s curated list of good fucks did seem to cheer Julian up. His curiosity and amusement got the best of him and he stopped crying and loosened his grip on Miles so that he could ask her questions about what each of them was like in bed. Miles half-choked, half-coughed in surprise, and Julian quickly clarified that he wasn’t ready to sleep with anyone else just yet, but he was just <em>dying</em> to know more about Lurian reproductive anatomy... Just medically speaking, of course. Because he is a doctor.</p><p>At this, Miles, beet-red, extracted himself from Julian’s embrace, and—after confirming that Julian was able to stand without his support—promptly excused himself from the conversation, and left the reception to go find a replicator to repair, while wondering if there was a way to rig the transporter buffer to delete the last few minutes from his own memory.</p><p>Julian and Jadzia tried desperately to stifle their amusement about Miles’ rapid retreat, but seeing each other try not to laugh made them both laugh even harder. Jadzia excused herself to go search for a napkin or a spare PADD so she could draw Julian some informative diagrams, with a secondary, unstated goal of regaining her composure.</p><p>Lwaxana finally saw her opportunity to talk to Julian. By the time she made her way over to him, he was no longer in fits of giggles and his mood had taken a turn for the morose again, as he thought about how devastatingly lonely his life would be without Garak.</p><p>“Julian...”</p><p>He looked at her, and wiped his face on his sleeve. He thought about how Garak would be mad that he was ruining his suit with his tears, then quickly corrected himself: Garak would not care at all anymore, and that felt so much worse. Her heart ached for them.</p><p>“Julian, I just wanted to say I’m sorry that things didn’t work out between you and Garak, and I’m so sorry for pushing you two together when you weren’t ready.”</p><p>“Oh... thanks, Lwaxana. It will be all right...” He smiled sadly. Lwaxana was heartened that he still had a touch of his characteristic optimism even at such a low moment.</p><p>“I was so wrapped up in trying to escape from my own problems by solving yours that I didn’t really think about the possibility that things wouldn’t work out between you.”</p><p>“Yeah, well, it <em>was</em> pretty inconsiderate and invasive of you, and I think he and I both wish that you hadn’t,” he said, angry at her intrusion into their minds and their relationship, and at how much physical and emotional pain she’d caused them. “Maybe in the future, don’t try to mess with people’s relationships, or make assumptions about what people want based on what they’re thinking about. Just let them figure their relationships out in their own time, okay?”</p><p>“I know. I apologize. I will try.”</p><p>“Good. Well... now that you’ve learned your lesson... I guess that we fooled you, huh?” Julian said, letting a grin form.</p><p>“Fooled me, what do you mean?”</p><p>“Garak and I... we’re still together! We planned this fight!” He could barely contain his excitement any longer, and he let everything he’d been holding back bubble up. “We were just pretending to break up, in order to show you that you can’t predict what the outcome will be if you try to force people together! And also to prove that even Betazoids with mindreading abilities as prodigious as yours can be deceived and misled, and that you can easily accidentally misinterpret people’s thoughts and intentions.”</p><p>She stood there reeling. Of course she knew that what people <em>thought </em>they wanted and what they <em>actually</em> wanted weren’t always the same. That was how she’d ended up marrying her most recent ex-husband (good riddance). But... it was surprising to learn that Garak and Julian could both fake their thoughts and emotions well enough to deceive her so thoroughly. She supposed the crowd being swept up in it and projecting their emotions onto them during the fight had made it more believable.</p><p>As surprised as she was at their deception, she was also relieved to hear that they were still together. But from the quiet rage still seething in Julian, she was aware that the fact the breakup was fake wasn’t exactly enough to absolve her.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Julian, truly, I just wanted you two to be happy...”</p><p>“Oh, I am sure that your intentions were good, but it was not okay. You shouldn’t mess around with anyone like that... And you really hurt Garak yesterday in the turbolift.”</p><p>Another surprise. “How did you...?”</p><p>“Don’t worry, we aren’t going to try to get you in trouble for that and whatever your plans were for the holosuite, not after you let Garak off the hook the other day, which... thank you dearly for that, by the way, I appreciate it, BUT! I do have to say, that whole incident absolutely could have been avoided if you hadn’t pushed him so hard about your last-minute wedding dress alterations and pressured him about revealing his feelings for me.”</p><p>She resented the implication that being a pushy customer and nosy matchmaker was an open invitation to violence against her, and was about to say so when she realized Garak probably had not been completely honest with Julian about his hostile intentions towards her, and thought better of interfering in their relationship again.</p><p>As she processed everything he’d said and tried to figure out how to respond, Julian caught Garak’s eye and motioned for him to come over.</p><p>Lwaxana detected Garak thanking Keiko kindly for her support and promising that he would explain everything to her a few days later at their weekly gardening session in the arboretum, before bidding his dear friend goodbye and crossing the room to Lwaxana and Julian. Julian waited for him to get there before he spoke again.</p><p>“Lwaxana, this is really important to me... will you promise to keep my secret?” Julian asked earnestly. Garak kissed him on the cheek, and then stood at his side with his arm wrapped around Julian’s waist. “Maybe in exchange for us not mentioning yours and Odo’s involvement in the turbolift and holosuite sabotages yesterday to Starfleet or the Bajoran provisional government?”</p><p>She looked in confusion at the pair of them. Julian was genuinely concerned about her revealing his secret, genuinely hopeful she might agree to his terms, and genuinely afraid of the consequences if she didn’t. Garak was thinking pointedly about a variety of possible ways he could hurt her and her loved ones, including graphic images (memories?) of Odo flaking apart while Garak refused to let him shapeshift. She recoiled from Garak’s mind immediately, feeling sick.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I just don’t understand... How are your feelings about Garak even a secret anymore?? You’ve kissed him and gotten dumped by him in front of an audience, and even now you’re kissing each other and being affectionate.”</p><p>Relief washed over both of them.</p><p>“Just... don’t let people know we staged our breakup to get back at you, all right? ”</p><p>“All right.” She was baffled, but she didn’t pry into either of their minds any further to try to figure out what they meant, too upset by what Garak might make her see next.</p><p>*</p><p>Julian said goodbye to a distressed and distracted Lwaxana (<em>Wow, she must feel really bad about what she’s done!</em> Julian thought, and his thoughts were not overheard for once. <em>Serves her right!</em>) as Garak led him away.</p><p>“So... did our undercover mission go as well as you hoped, <em>Agent</em> Bashir?” Garak asked conspiratorially.</p><p>“It was perfect! She was definitely fooled!”</p><p>“Of course she was, you were <em>marvelous</em>, dear.”</p><p>“Mmm, so were you,” Julian said, sliding his arm around Garak’s lower back.</p><p>“Who knew you had such a talent for deception?”</p><p>“I learned from the best!”</p><p>“Do you think she will leave us alone now? Are you satisfied with our revenge?”</p><p>“Absolutely. And I think that our punishment for Quark was sufficiently cruel, too.”</p><p>“He’ll be furious with himself for not writing up an invoice for his soulmate-finding services. And did you enjoy all the attention?”</p><p>“Oh, yes! Everyone watching us kiss... Oh, it was thrilling, I loved it! It was nice being in <em>control</em> of what other people know about our relationship, especially after Lwaxana kept overhearing so many of our private thoughts without us realizing or being able to fully stop her. I just want everyone to be confused and not know a damn thing about us or our relationship that we haven’t chosen to tell them!!</p><p>“Also... I have to admit that you were right, it can be great fun to put out so much misinformation about our personal lives. I kind of love that we’re going to be the talk of the station for weeks with our volatile breakup and immediate mysterious reconciliation.” Julian spun Garak around to face him, and kissed his nose and then the divot on his forehead.</p><p>Garak laughed. “I don’t know why you’re so pleased about that. They’re all going to think you suddenly acquiesced to my utterly ridiculous demand that you should continue being my lover while I take another Cardassian as a spouse.”</p><p>“Mmm, I think you’re overestimating your own reputation for persuasiveness. I think it’s more likely they’ll be under the impression that <em>you</em> acquiesced to <em>my</em> demands, because if they’ve overheard any of our lunchtime debates they would know that I <em>always</em> win our arguments.”</p><p>“You rarely ever win!” Garak said indignantly. “Although I suppose in this case I will graciously allow you to win, as I have no desire to ever be with anyone but you, my love.”</p><p>Julian grinned. “Not even for a threesome? Jadzia just tipped me off about some people on the station who might be down for casual sex, and it made me wonder if you would ever consider—”</p><p>“My dear doctor!” Garak hissed quietly in melodramatic affront, but there was amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes. “We’ve been sleeping together for less than a day. Let’s just enjoy each other on our own for a little while before we consider that.”</p><p>“Mmm, you’ll get no objections from me there. I plan to enjoy you thoroughly.”</p><p>He cupped Garak’s cheek in his hand, leaned his forehead against Garak’s, and let his suggestive smile soften into something else.</p><p>“Garak... I <em>will</em> consider going with you to Cardassia, you know, if that’s ever an option and that’s what you want. I know we talked about this last night, but I saw the hurt in your eyes when I said that I wouldn’t during our ‘fight’ just now, so I just wanted to reassure you again...”</p><p>“I know, my dear, it was just part of our script. But thank you. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go home... but knowing that I won’t have to choose between you and Cardassia is unbelievably comforting. And you needn’t worry about all that nonsense I said about wanting to beget children with another Cardassian. I truly couldn’t care less about maintaining my family’s bloodline.”</p><p>Julian scowled. “Yeah, same with me. I mean, I love kids, I really do... but if I ever raise children, they had better not have any of my DNA, because I am <em>not</em> passing on this curse my parents gave me to anyone else. In fact it’d probably safer for any potential children of mine if they aren’t human at all, so that there won’t be any doubts. So... maybe we can just adopt?”</p><p>“I think we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves again.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, you’re right,” Julian laughed. “I get a little bit intense when I’m in love! I just want to do everything, all at once!!” He waved his arms around enthusiastically.</p><p>“There will be plenty of time, I’m sure, my dear,” Garak said with an adoring smile, “but right now I’m growing tired of this party. Recent events are catching up with me, and I just want some peace and quiet. Do you have the pattern for red leaf tea loaded into the replicator in your quarters?”</p><p>“Of course!”</p><p>“Then I’m inviting myself over immediately, and you are going to pamper me with tea, and chocolates, and the softest pillows and blankets you own, until I forget about the dreadful ordeals Lwaxana Troi has put us through.”</p><p>“I’d love to!”</p><p>They left arm in arm, bickering lightheartedly about something petty and inconsequential, unable to take their eyes off each other, excited to see where their relationship would go.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>THE END! </p><p>I know it’s not perfect, but it’s something even BETTER than perfect: it’s DONE!!! ^_^ This is now the longest story I have ever completed!! Also, I never added “Garak” or any other star trek words to my word processor’s spellcheck, and after the document got to about page 40 or so, my word processor gave me an error message and said it was no longer going to underline typos because just there were too many!!! Achievement that I didn’t know existed: unlocked! XD</p><p>Keiko would unequivocally be on Garak’s side of their fake-breakup. Keiko and Garak are ride-or-die BFFs, and you can pry that headcanon out of my cold dead hands. ALSO, Keiko is the one who canonically tried to open up her marriage to polyamory with Kira, so like... she wouldn’t even be mad about Garak's claim about wanting to have multiple spouses tbh lmao</p><p>Well, I hope you had fun reading!! I had so much fun writing this! A big thanks to the_last_dillards for giving me some great ideas about how Julian and Garak should get revenge on Lwaxana—specifically, giving Quark all the credit to annoy Lwaxana and staging a fake fight to make her regret meddling! I really needed those brainstorming sessions to get unstuck on this fic a number of times! Thanks to sapphose for tons of encouragement and sanity checks too! </p><p>And another big thank you to everyone who has ever commented, left kudos, or told me in some other way that you like this fic, with particular shoutouts to Mami94, Primal_Nexus, mustangsjoeka, kukalakas, and lighthouse_at_sea! (And a preemptive thank you to anyone who does any of that in the future! No pressure to do so, of course, but I promise I will never not appreciate kudos/comments, hehehe!) Your support has fueled me and I feel so grateful! This fandom is so incredible!!!! &lt;3 &lt;3 &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>